


The Jishinko Chronicles

by Becky_Blue_Eyes



Series: Nakama Maintenance Workshop 101 [5]
Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: Abigail is awesome and so is everyone else, F/F, F/M, Gen, THE FUJITAS ARE HERE, i can't help myself i'm sorry lol, i will try to keep the sadness down to a minimum for this lol, ok i lied the third chapter has mentions of self harm and gore and eating disorders, the Fujitas are coming, this is a drabble series so anything goes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-19
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-02-26 05:57:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 54,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2640629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Becky_Blue_Eyes/pseuds/Becky_Blue_Eyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They are the movers and shakers of San Fransokyo, the protectors and the innovators, and their stories are immortal. A collection of drabbles in the It's a Body Shock post canon U, sprinkled with various dramas, character relationships, and possible AUs. SPOILERS FOR BIG HERO 6</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1-7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> because I'm perfectly happy in this little universe I've crafted for myself, and drabbles are easy to write which means more updates
> 
> disclaimer: I don't own the copyrighted material within

Abigail looks between Hiro, face red and arms crossed and eyes narrowed like Tadashi on a warpath, and Baymax, calm and placid and totally not being incinerated by a fourteen year old's righteous fury, then continues in her trashy romance novel and decides not to get involved.

"I do not need any booster shots, Baymax!"

Oooh, the intrepid spacefaring heroine is totally going to bone the handsome alien monarch and the monarch's even handsomer valet.

"My records indicate that you have not received the recommended Tdap vaccine, nor that you received an earlier—"

Hmm, does that make the heroine bisexual, since the valet wears a dress, or did the nonbinary natures of the alien race make her outside of that spectrum?

"I don't do doctor's appointments, ok?"

She wonders if there's a SFST class about human-alien sexuality she can audit, but then dismisses that because her course load is a bit packed this year as it is.

"Hiro, if hospital environments make you uncomfortable—"

"Just drop it, ok?"

Abigail puts down her book and gets involved, "Can't Baymax just give you the shots here? I mean," she motions at the giant chemistry reaction Honey is currently scraping off the walls in their lab, "We might not do it right here cuz it's kinda dirty right now, but your aunt runs a clean house."

Hiro holds his arm and his ears turn red, "I'd prefer not to have any shots at all, if possible."

She looks at how his shoulders are edging up towards his jaw, the rigid lines of his skinny legs and hips, how he really wants to drop the topic please? She smiles, "It's ok, I hate needles to death." She rolls up her sleeves to show off the nice set of not-heroin marks freeze burned into her skin, "The stupid life support was hooked to these veins and a few places I'm not gonna show off, and they stung so bad in the cold, I never want to get an IV again."

Hiro winces and they share the memory of that chill, and she adds lightly as she returns to her book, "Not to mention they had to shoot up my mouth full of Novocaine when they fixed my teeth; I crushed my father's hand anyway since the noises alone were horrible, and now I can't go to dentist offices without needing to smoke three cartridges."

Baymax interjects that Abigail should be mindful of even nicotine free e-cigarettes and she banters with him over her poor life decisions while Hiro watches her with bright brown eyes. Abigail concedes to try and kick her menthol addiction, and she smiles when Hiro mumbles to Baymax, "If I neeeed the shots, can I get them at home? Hospitals and doctor's offices are just...not a Thing for me."

"I am your personal health care provider Hiro, I will gladly administer the vaccines in a comfortable environment."

"Thanks," and Hiro goes back to his work and Abigail ruffles his hair.

* * *

Cass smiles when her little college man and his friends pile into the cafe, Baymax waddling in and tolerating the group of toddlers playing with his balloon body. Hiro rushes into the backroom to get his apron, and it might be rather cruel to make him work on Thursday afternoons between all his classes and hanging out with his friends, but she likes getting to spend some time with her onlynonotonly favorite nephew.

Gogo and Abigail tease Hiro because he's just adorable in his little uniform, and load him down with enough drink requests to make Cass wonder how Honey got so tall when she drinks more espresso than the rest of them. But Hiro is a master of the coffee machines and Cass lets him work while she reminds Mr. Takechiho that no, it's considered bad form to use her macarons as ammunition for his slingshot. Kids, she wonders if Hiro will have any more teenage rebellions now that he's put bot fighting behind him.

While Hiro's friends eat and it's so great to have them over, Tadashi loved them and they were such a stabilizing presence at the funeral, Cass finishes her current needs and slides up to Hiro by the soda machine. "How was your day at school, sweetie?"

"It was good, Abigail's helping me with more robot designs and Wasabi helped me with my applied physics homework during lunch so I don't have too much to do tonight," and he sounds so grown up, all college-y and responsible for his works and oh, if his parents could see him now. He makes a face when Cass gives him a back cracking bear hug, "Honey, you better not be instagraming this."

"Too late!" Honey sings out and Hiro pretends to be mad but still gives Cass an extra hug.

Cass and Hiro work until closing, Hiro mouthing off to his friends between drink orders and clarifying human interactions for Baymax. Cass doesn't throw them out after the doors are locked because they are so much more than paying customers, they're practically family but this point, and she watches Abigail squeeze Hiro onto her seat so that they can show off one of his new ideas together for their friends.

Cass wonders if Abigail was like that with Tadashi; Abigail had come over a few times the year before when she was Tadashi's TA when they weren't at Shizu's or Tadashi's lab, but the distance between them was far larger and formal than the easy invasion of space where Abigail pokes Hiro's forehead and Hiro sprawls over Abigail to grab the last white chocolate croissant.

For half a second it's almost like Hiro and Tadashi and Cass smiles past the ache behind her eyes; this lets her see the seconds where it's not Hiro or Tadashi at all, but maybe like Cass and her little brother-in-law in the years before Tomeo grew up and married Mae and adopted Cass into the family. And maybe it's not like that at all, it's just her nephew and a new loved one that Cass plans on giving the good old Hamada discount, and she asks Hiro after his friends finally leave at bed time, "Do you like college?"

"I love it," he grins so easily now, the grief is settled next to love and there's only genuine happiness on his face today.

Cass wants to cry a little because her newphewbaby is growing up into a man who will change the world, and she teases, "Even though people instagram you hugging your lame old aunt?"

He rolls his eyes and initiates the hug this time, and it's all going to be alright; Cass trusts Abigail and Hiro's friends, and she only hopes that she'll get to see the world that Hiro will create oh so very soon.

* * *

It's not really anyone's fault that the lab has to be evacuated—San Fransokyo has so many earthquakes that by now jishinko is a positive nickname for the movers and shakers in society—but the fact remains that Gogo's electromagnetic suspension bike is the catalyst to fifteen broken windows, three fires and the spread of highly reactive itching powder in the lab and the surrounding floor.

As a result, it's she who gets her parents called in, and the group rallies around her. "I'm so sorry," Fred apologizes for the fifth time, "I shouldn't have even brought in that powder—"

"It's cool," Gogo pops her gum, "This is much less on the scale of mess-ups from when I broke my leg with my Hub stunt."

"I keep hearing about that," Hiro kicks his legs in the uncomfortable chairs they're all perched in, "Why exactly did you want to bike across the Hub roof? It's like, 6 stories up and shaped like an otera."

Gogo shrugs, "It just had to be done," and the team ribs Gogo about her crazy stunts throughout the years while Hiro gathers potential blackmail material, until the doors down the hall slam open. Gogo cringes, Abigail rubs her shoulder in support, and a furious pint sized Korean woman shrieks, "ETHEL!"

"Ethel?" Fred's face goes slack, "Your name is Ethel?"

Abigail blinks while Wasabi stifles an inappropriate giggle into his palm, "I thought it was Yerin?"

Gogo shudders as her mother tears down the hall, "Yerin is my Korean name, Gogo is my friend name, and Ethel is going to be on my tombstone—Eomeoni, jebal!"

Gogo's mother grabs her wayward daughter by the ear and drags her into the office, followed by a behemoth of a Korean man who is more silent than the pause after the three disappear behind opaque doors. The doors are soundproof but they can feel Gogo's tiny mother's wrath and Baymax waddles in through the hall, "I instructed Mr. and Mrs. Cho about Gogo's location. Was I correct?"

"...Ethel!" Wasabi and Fred fall into hysterics. Abigail shakes her head and Hiro looks concerned for his friend and Fred wipes his eyes, "But that's an old lady name! What kind of name can be worse than Ethel?"

Abigail puffs out her cheeks and makes eye contact with Honey, who brushes her hair out of her face, claps her hands in her lap, and rattles off, "My name is Maria Lucia Camila Victoria Hernandez Fellner; my mother's name is Maria Ludmila Caterina Valentina Miyazaki Hernandez; and my abuelita's name is Maria Leika Kasumina Beniha de Miyazaki." She adjusts her glasses, "Really, Ethel is a nice name."

Fred sputters because too many names and Abigail laughs at Wasabi's dumbstruck expression; when asked by Baymax, Hiro just shrugs, "People can go crazy with names; just be happy Tadashi named you Baymax instead of Synthetic Entity Monster Baymax or whatever."

* * *

Abigail forces the door closed just as Hiro pushes Baymax in, and they shiver because the power's out and her kotatsu is out of juice. The typhoon from the northern coasts decided to blow San Fransokyo a kiss before it left, and Abigail wrings her hair out into the sink, "That's it, you're spending the night."

Hiro nods, pale faced and tight lipped, and Abigail narrows her eyes, "Baymax, please scan Hiro."

"Scan complete. Hiro has various lacerations and abrasions caused by tree branches and is in the early stages of hypothermia; a change of clothes and increased heat is recommended."

Crap, Abigail herself is soaked to the bone and Hiro needs a bath but judging from the ominous sounds her flat's water heater is making, she's not expecting a sauna. She turns to Hiro and clucks her tongue because he's covered in mud and leaves, cheeks scratched and hair tangled from a fight with a fallen tree and Cass would be so impressed by Abigail's tiny Hamada rescue service.

Oh well, they can make do. Directing Hiro to her bathroom, she digs around in her closet for anything that would fit; an oversized night shirt, a pair of surfboard shorts Abigail could tie down, and... "Oh wow, Wasabi's been in here."

"W-What?" Hiro clatters his teeth and doesn't dodge the tightly bundled pack Abigail throws at his chest.

"Yep, there's these emergency packs of clothes where my stash of macadamia cookies should be," Abigail swears revenge on Wasabi but admits that it would be best for everyone in the team to have extra civvies on hand in case they need to change out of their uniforms in a hurry. "Ok, you need a bath, Mr. Icicle; there's extra towels by the sink aaaand there's no lights, Baymax make sure that he doesn't trip and fall and die in there."

Hiro sticks his tongue out and Abigail flashes her shiny white teeth. But when he tugs off his shirt and she sees the nasty cut dragging across his shoulder blades, she hisses and throws him the board shorts, "Strip down and get into those, I'll be in shortly."

"W-What?"

"You heard me," Abigail lights a pitiful candle to illuminate her bedroom, "we're prolly gonna have a mission tomorrow to help with clean up, and I need to make sure that you don't get blood poisoning."

Hiro protests and Abigail uses her taller person privilege to lord over him, and Baymax concludes with, "While I am capable of caring for my patient alone, Abigail's presence will be beneficial." Hiro sighs at his lost cause and trips his way through her bathroom, Abigail listening to Baymax ask "On a scale of one to ten" while she changes into a clean T shirt and spandex shorts.

Knocking three times on the door, she goes in to see Hiro still shivering as he knees by the tiny pre-shower. She tests the water and it's pleasantly warm, and asks, "You doing ok?"

"F-Fine," he chatters, and Abigail flinches when she sees a red trail dipping down his spine. She directs, "Baymax, keep monitoring his health and pitch in where possible," and grabs a little hand bucket, soap and towel.

It's been a long time since she's done this—once her best friend Taylor Zhang got roaring drunk and she had to wash vomit from her hair; Abigail would rather do that a thousand times than relive the news of Taylor dying in a drunken car accident—and never before with someone both so close and so new in her life. But her soap is gender neutral so that the boys in her graduate program don't get all huffy about the feminine mystique, and she gently washes away the muck and blood that clings to Hiro.

His back isn't that bad once the gunk is gone and Baymax applies a waterproof spray to prevent infection while Abigail works on Hiro's arms and shoulders. He trembles under her touch and she coaxes a bit more hot water from the shower, letting him wash his front and legs since he's fourteen and cares about his privacy.

His hair though, that takes Abigail's needlepoint precision earned from years of piloting. Little barrel rolls of raven hair locking around twigs, snarling and matting and refusing to yield, Abigail picks through it all. Baymax finishes before Abigail does, her hands slow and steady as she detangles, then combs, then washes, scrubbing away the grime and little hurts pent up in Hiro's brain, and combs again once the suds are whirpooling at their feet.

He has very nice hair, she takes a moment to just run her fingers through it and count how many shivers corkscrew down Hiro's neck.

Baymax starts the bath and uses every last drop of hot water, and Abigail helps a very quiet, still trembling Hiro into the water. He hisses then sighs in rapture, sinking into the clean water and Abigail murmurs, "I'll be outside," so he can soak in peace. Changing into real pajamas, she argues with the ancient electric blanket bundled away in her chest because it's nearly as cold as the portal in here and Abigail refuses to let any more warmth in her life leech away.

She brushes her teeth once Hiro comes out in her oversized shirt and his backup civvie shorts, and he lingers by her bed, rubbing her eyes and still so very quiet. Abigail shakes her head at his sweet, teenage respect of privacy and pulls him under the blankets, "You're still cold, Hiro, just pretend I'm a space heater and go to sleep."

Freezing hands clutch onto the front of her shirt and she didn't know he was a cuddler, this is nice. Hiro hides his face against the hollow of her shoulder and shivers, and possessed by the urge to comfort, Abigail runs her fingers through his hair down his neck to his waist and back up again. He exhales and falls sleep, and Abigail continues on any way until the repetition lulls her to memories of her father that don't hurt and Tadashi gushing about his brother over a bowl of Shizu's udon and Baymax standing over them, measuring their quieting brain activity.

They scramble to get up the next day because yes, San Fransokyo needs their Big Heroes, but just before they rocket out the door towards their hidden gear, Hiro hugs Abigail and mumbles, "Thank you, neesan."

Abigail wipes her eyes and yells at Hiro for turning her into such an emotional ninny, and they spend the rest of the day in the sky, helping people and keeping Fred from killing himself and chasing away the storm clouds that pile beyond the horizon.

* * *

Nene frowns at the damage those bastard yakuza-wannabe freshmen have done to her bar. Everything is spilled and spoiled, graffiti tagged on the walls and her floor stereos ripped out. It's not the end of the world, mind you, she has the funds needed to repair the shop by next week, but it's still too much unnecessary work.

One of the Big Heroes, the shortest one in purple, shifts by her side, "Don't worry, my other teammates are chasing them down right now, and one of them says she knows where they tried to pawn off your stereos."

Nene sighs, "Thank you, this helps." She sits down on a clean bar stool and muses, "Lucky punks, if this had happened three years ago they'd be missing their kneecaps."

"What was that?" and he is so cute, Nene swears she's seen that face before with that tone of voice, but the helmet visor is doing things to her eyes and she can't be too sure. There's more important things to worry about anyway, other than the nighttime antics of a possible customer. Still, she appreciates this hero's presence, and needs to give him something.

"Nothing," she picks up an uncontaminated container of white chocolate caramel pretzels and bows it over to him, "For your excellent service; I made them myself with that good Ghirardelli chocolate and there's sea salt in the mix, so please enjoy."

His face lights up and she's seen that smile before, that's Abigail's little student, Nene has never forgotten a face, even with that tricky helmet. Does Abigail know about this? And oh, the Big Hero 6 who saved this poor campus would just so happen to be the same number of people as Hiro's friends; they say there's a new member now, dressed in grayish white and on a hoverboard and oh

oh

Nene smiles and waves when Hiro leaves, the boy promising to return with her speakers. Nene has her kinesiology project to work on and shop salvaging to do; she puts off the first for another night and enlists her heroes in cleaning everything up before the sun rises. It's a lot of work she really, really wish she didn't have to do, and she's actually bothered by her policy of no questions asked when she knows that it's Abigail behind that visor and it's her little customer at fourteen doing things that Nene envies at eighteen.

But the work is pleasant, and the heroes are pleasant, and Nene watches them go with a wave. Oh yes, she's definitely stocking up on more white chocolate caramel pretzels, she should have enough by reopening to make Hiro's sundae extra special.

* * *

Honey appraises the posted pictures before nodding and reblogging them to her online boutique's active feed, and Abigail whistles, "When you said that you helped run Dizzy Kei Boutiques, I thought you were joking."

"Nope," Honey smiles, and deletes an older cache of junk data, "a few other girls man the posts while I'm in the lab or in the field—you know Gigi Nguyen, the current theoretical mathematics TA? Her older sister Carol owns the domain and we all pitch in when we can."

Gogo looks at all the sunny dresses and leggings and platform heels and cracks her gum. Abigail takes a moment to appreciate Gogo's biking shorts before reminding herself that team incest is unacceptable, especially when Abigail is a 24 year old grad student and Gogo a 21-ish undergrad. Making a note to start crushing on another radish calved Korean girl, Abigail asks, "What do you do for extra cash, Gogo?"

"Bike courier," Gogo pulls at her shirt to reveal a sakura crest tattoo on her shoulder blade, "I've been sending messages for companies in Bayview and beyond since I was 15. Good pay, made a few friends," Gogo smirks, "Nearly got arrested for ramping a freeway on a dare and derailing a high speed chase."

Honey gasps, "That was you?!" and oh crap, Abigail is never going to find someone as deliciously daring as Edith Yerin Cho. They banter for a while about exercising because those radish calves came from somewhere and hypersleep had a hyper effect on muscle deterioration in Abigail's body. But then Honey asks, "What do you do for money, Abigail? I mean, outside of TA work?"

Abigail feels her shoulders slump and she plays with her e-cig, "I used to fly private parties for a weekend, do errands in my father's department...maybe volunteer to pilot for Krei Industries."

Gogo sucks in a breath and Honey apologizes for Abigail's misfortunes, and Abigail smiles, "He paid me a lot for Silent Sparrow, since I was the best pilot they had and the only one stupid enough to fly through an experimental teleportation wormhole."

"Abigail..."

"It's my fault, you know," Abigail twists and fumbles with her e-cig but the cartridge needs refilling and the idea of smoke vapor in her lungs makes her stomach turn. "If I had said no, Silent Sparrow wouldn't have gotten to that testing stage, and my father wouldn't have lost it over seeing me disappear, and Tadashi would still be alive."

Gogo grabs onto Abigail's shoulder and her voice sends fire through the cold sores in Abigail's healing flesh, "What your father did was his own decision. You couldn't have known about Tadashi."

"I was in that portal for almost a week before hand," Abigail presses her fist to her lips, "If Hiro hadn't upgraded Baymax to take down Yokai, I would've stayed in there. If my father had died instead of Tadashi, I'd still be in there." She shudders and looks at Honey and Gogo with pained child eyes, "Is that...is that fair? Cuz Hiro said it wasn't but now I'm thinking about it and he nearly died saving me and Tadashi died a stupid death due to my decision—"

Honey hugs Abigail into a lean shoulder, and Gogo fills in the empty spaces. Abigail swallows her tears as Honey soothes, "You couldn't have known about the accident, or Pro...your father deciding to take his hurt out on everyone. And Tadashi's death has nothing to—listen to me, hermana," Honey chides lightly when Abigail shakes her head, "The only one to blame is not in this room. You're our friend and our teammate, and you have nothing to be guilty for, Abigail, especially for being alive."

Abigail's heart bleeds at this easy acceptance and she understands why Tadashi mentioned Honey's name so often in their long ago study sessions. Abigail wipes her eyes and half laughs, "You two ought to call me Abby already, but he took that nickname and ruined it."

Gogo grins and squeezes around Abigail's waist, "Fred will hook you up with a good one, no worries. And seriously," her voice is so soft and sincere that it makes Abigail shiver, "you're a part of the nerd team now, don't ever forget it."

"I won't," Abigail sniffles and blushes because she's a terrible mess and they don't care and it's so wonderful to have people fill the space that Taylor left behind. She hugs them again and sighs over her hopeless crush, craving menthol just a bit but putting her e-cig away; it's pleasantly warm in here anyway, listening to Honey and Gogo and being a part of something that she'd thought her father's crimes had stolen, she can do without.

* * *

Abigail and Hiro walk down the street, her steps staccato and his flowing everywhere because he's just developed a cool new idea for Baymax and can't wait to test it out. But he's a hungry boy and Abigail's eaten maybe half a muffin in the past 36 hours, and it's time that she's taken him to Shizu's.

Shizu's is a respectable noodle house, thoroughly Japanese down to allowing 20 year olds/20 year old appearing 19 year olds to drink, and they claim a little table. Hiro looks around and kicks his legs, "So this is where you and Tadashi used to go all the time?"

"What can I say," Abigail looks at the familiar wall décor and the bar where she tried to con her way into getting a bottle of sake for herself and Taylor when they were 15, "udon fans tend to congregate around these doors."

They get edamame to start and Hiro plays with the bean pods, "I've always preferred yakitori and gyouza; noodles are too wet, they splatter when I'm trying to work on stuff."

"I know," Abigail squishes her face, "I messed up one of my freshman year projects big time by spilling soba all over it. My partners tried to kill me, I had to convince my father to give us more time to recreate our schematics."

Hiro shakes his head at such a terrible accident. They both order the chicken udon with Hiro asking for the house hot sauce on the side, and Abigail wrinkles her nose, "That's going to mess up the flavors."

"Oh, you're a flavor purist like Tadashi!" Hiro grins, "What, do you eat your sushi raw too?"

"Soy sauce is sacrilege!"

"Then why would they make such delicious sauces in the first place?"

"For the sad, taste-ignorant losers who don't appreciate the natural taste of food!"

They argue for ten minutes and Hiro covers her edamame with soy sauce and she noogies him so hard that she electrocutes herself on the metal table edge. Then they laugh and laugh until their waiter comes with their udon, and Abigail rubs at her eye, "Just try it without the sauce first, you heathen, and then you can destroy it however you'd like."

"Absolutely," he snorts, and then tries the udon that his brother loved so much. Abigail slurps at her own broth and noodles and looks up to see Hiro considering the bowl. She raises her eyebrows, and he shrugs, "'s ok."

She smiles, "That's how they hook you in."

Hiro tries some more, looks at his hot sauce, and Abigail laughs when he reluctantly pushes it away. He claps, "Itadakimasu!" and with the warm lighting and the soft music and the good food in their stomachs, it's easy to think of Tadashi here, all three of them enjoying together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm literally just gonna write 5-7 random drabbles of random lengths that appear in my mind and post them per chapter. Except for a special arc involving Nene, these drabbles are not super connected and are more of just happy, sad and happy-sad moments in the It's a Body Shock post-canon U.
> 
> Jamie Chung said that Gogo's real name is Edith, so I added it onto my headcanon name for her to make Edith Yerin "Gogo Tomago" Cho. It has a nice ring to it.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you like this kind of formatting! If you have a specific scenario you want to see, gimme a shout out in the comments/reviews!


	2. 8-12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> because we need some more glorious drabbles up in here
> 
> disclaimer: I don't own the copyrighted material within

Hiro looks out the window, frowning when his fingertips freeze on the glass. San Fransokyo was not nearly as warm as Los Angosaka on any given day, but even Hiro was a little tired of wearing his hoodie 24/7 in sunny weather. "Baymax," Hiro groans as he pulls his hands away, "is your heater online yet?"

"My internal heater is still undergoing maintenance after yesterday's heroic escapades," Baymax says from his charging station, "It will be fully operational in approximately 6 hours."

Hiro sighs, before pulling on his shoes and tugging his hood over his hair. 6 hours wasn't too long, and he has outside chores and general errands to finish before meeting up with his friends for the new Ghibli movie coming out. And New Years is coming soon, he should go and check out a few of the shops downtown before the tourist rush and figure out what he wants to get his aunt.

Brushing past Aunt Cass bustling about in the blessedly warm kitchen, he walks outside and wow that's brisk. Like, really brisk, he and Abigail are gonna get frostbite when they fly after villains; Hiro rubs his nose and walks into the crisp clear day.

He returns two hours later, nose bright red and lips chapped and every inch of him aching from the freezing numb. "Oww," he hisses between his teeth as warmth hits him harder than the gale force winds down by the pier, and he winces when his dry throat aches. Baymax is too far away to hear him though, and he's far too cold to try again.

Cass takes one look at him before sighing, "Oh, poor thing!" and she drags him to one of the comfier chairs. Mochi mrrows and licks Hiro's frozen hand, and Cass wraps those hands around a large steaming mug, "Here, just take it easy." She looks at the frost clinging to the sunlight window and tisks, "You should've come home, you're a little icicle!"

Hiro struggles to get the mug to his lips and Cass helps, Hiro blushing because now he feels like a useless baby. But there's cinnamon and nutmeg in the hot cocoa, just enough spice to make it so sweet in his mouth, and Hiro relaxes into the seat. The warmth spreads from his stomach all the way down to his frozen toes, and he watches his aunt care for her customers. It's soothing, like watching Wasabi fine tune his experiments to exact precision, or listening to Honey as she talks about her day by the fountains at Fred's house, or feeling the hum of Gogo's electromagnetic suspension through the ground.

It's like Baymax giving a hug and Abigail running her fingers through Hiro's hair and Tadashi singing to him when he was very small, Hiro doesn't remember the words but he remembers the feeling and it was warm just like this. He feels like he should remember this, it seems important.

Cass smiles when she finds her nephew snoozing away in the chair, cup still cupped in his hands and looking so young in his oversized hoodie. She ruffles his hair when she walks by and he sighs and break her heart just a bit because he may be Mae's son, but he's hers too and she couldn't be more proud of him.

His friends come to collect him later, and find Cass reading during a dead hour in the cafe, propped up against Baymax acting as a heater for Hiro, Cass and Mochi. Honey awws and takes a picture and sends it to Cass later; Cass hangs it up in the living space.

Hiro just grumbles about not being adorable even while he sits propped up against Cass, Baymax and Mochi, basking in the warmth they radiate into frozen toes and the little aches still firing off in his heart.

* * *

Hiro widens his eyes as Fred casually skateboards between racing cars and trolleys because that can't possibly be safe, not even for a Big Hero. Wasabi shakes his head, "Everyone at San Fransokyo State is a skateboard freak, don't be so surprised."

"Hey, I take offense to that," Fred skates up to them, "There's definitely a biking club at SFST I take part in."

The three walk through the crowded shopping district, avoiding the tourist traps in search of perfect New Year gifts. Christmas was a bit subdued this year, what with Baymax "lost" in the portal and grief still settling into proper places. But now Baymax is operating and Hiro is actually excited for the coming year and getting to bother his new friends; what better way to celebrate being alive than stressing out over gifts? Wasabi groans, "We should've gone earlier than this, all the best stuff is going to be gone by now!"

Hiro shrugs, "We'll find something," and maybe it's the Hamada blood in his veins but he's called away from the main streets to the back alleys where bot fights take place and hole in the wall tea shops sell the stuff that Aunt Cass would die for. And there's cute china figures too, which Honey collects, and Wasabi finds the one back alley bike repair shop in all of San Fransokyo that sells the exact bike chain oil that Gogo uses on her traditional bike. "Hmm," Hiro palms a tiny festival doll, "I wonder what to get Abigail..." Not to mention Fred and Wasabi; Hiro tries to think of something, and curses his stupid empty brain.

Fred's phone goes off and he spends a moment having a very strange conversation about cake, waving his arms around and his easy-going voice going rather authoritative for once. Wasabi explains, "He's heading a New Year's dinner for the SF Food Pantry and the Habitat for Families, so he's been on his phone all week."

Hiro raises his eyebrows, impressed at Fred's charity work. Once Fred was done reaming at the other guy for not double checking about food allergies, Hiro asks, "So you're SFIT's school mascot, and an English major at SFST—"

"I'm thinking about adding Ainu Studies as a minor, since I took so many classes about it already," Fred sidesteps a very furious Chinese lady carrying a bag full of kittens away from a shady looking cat seller. "Either that or just general Ethnic Studies with an emphasis on the history of Ainu integration within San Fransokyo and their place in current society and academics, but I figure I should just do the first, right?"

Hiro tilts his head in interest, "Hontou? Any particular reason why or you just like that subject area?"

"Yeah, my grandmother was raised by an Ainu family, so I know some stuff," Fred counts off his fingers, "Gotta balance that around English stuff, bike club stuff, food pantry stuff, Brothers From Other Mothers—which you should all join—stuff, audit classes stuff...oh, and being Fredzilla, of course."

Wasabi grins as Hiro looks at Fred in awe. He pats Hiro's shoulder, "Yep, we made the same face when we found out that stuff, little man."

"How are you even functional?" Hiro tugs at his hoodie strings, "I'm barely managing school, Big Hero stuff and Thursday shifts, and I live 20 minutes in either direction!"

"It's just a balancing game," Fred reassures as he goes off to haggle with the store owner about a pair of hina dolls for his mother, "you gotta figure out what's the most important to you and go from there."

Hiro considers this as he helps Wasabi find the exactly perfect tea set for his mother. His friends and family are important, being a Big Hero is important, his nerd school is important, and keeping Baymax out of trouble so that Tadashi's legacy could live on is important. He fumbles around with his wallet, mind slammed with what else is perched in his balancing game, and he asks Wasabi, "So what's important to you?"

"For today, my agenda is getting these gifts and going home to finish up some work on my physics project," Wasabi purchases his tea set and asks, "Any reason why?"

Hiro looks down at his feet, "Nothing, just..." Did he have something as important as Fred's charity work, or Abigail's piloting, or Tadashi's need to save lives? His microbots were made on a whim, and look where that got them. "...I'm just in a weird mood today, I guess."

This earns him a boba run after he finally decides to make Abigail her own special snowflake present, and Hiro sets aside these questions in favor of listening to Wasabi and Fred banter back and forth, sipping his chocolate milk boba tea and valuing the worth of his friends.

* * *

Hiro finds an answer to this while with Gogo, Honey and Abigail, helping them buy gifts for the other boys and Nene; the boys for obvious reasons, and Nene because she's surprisingly kind, giving them sweets Abigail thought were discontinued after her shop was broken into and not kicking them out after-hours. Honey giggles that obviously Nene must be in love with Abigail, and Hiro makes oogaly faces at their backs while the three accuse each other of dating everyone from Nene to Gigi Nguyen to Fred's butler Heathcliff.

Ugh, dating, Hiro wonders if he's ever going to appreciate that stuff and decides to focus on presents instead.

For Wasabi, all of them are pitching in to buy the pieces of a ridiculously awesome 1000 piece equipment set perfect for his physics coursework, with coordinating gift wrap. Fred is a bit trickier in that his interests are both everywhere and confined to heroic pseudo-science, but Hiro finds an old comic book shop with a giant tome on the history of the Second Golden Age of Science Fiction that he hopes Fred will enjoy.

He looks at Abigail who is flipping through one of those mushy romance books, and Hiro sighs because if romance isn't important to him yet, then what is? Tadashi had a mission when he built Baymax, he had something important to him, and Tadashi isn't here to help answer this strange question pulling at Hiro's thoughts.

"Something up, Hiro?" Abigail pokes Hiro's forehead and it doesn't hurt like it used to but he still finds himself comparing older siblings.

He rubs his forehead, "Nothing, I'm just thinking about a question Fred brought up earlier this week."

"Ah, the age old 'who came first: the velociraptor or the egg'?"

"Well, obviously the velociraptor, but then again I'm not in evolutionary sciences—we're off topic," Hiro narrows his eyes when Abigail cracks up, "and your sense of humor is stupid."

"Sorry," she ruffles his hair and he's comparing his neesan and niisan again, "I just think it's funny how serious you can get. But seriously," both of their voices do the softening Thing when they're concerned, "what's on your mind?"

Hiro looks down at the gift he's purchased, and thinks of the gifts waiting at home in his closet near the partitioned off section of Tadashi's corner, and they're not getting New Years postcards this year which sucks because Aunt Cass loves receiving them, and he sighs, "I don't know what are the most important things in my life. It seems like I just get general answers, like friends and family and school, but Tadashi had real goals, and so do you and Fred and everyone, and I..."

The depression hits and he rubs his nose against the general cold, "It's stupid, I'm just being down, it's fine."

Abigail half smiles and wraps her arm around his shoulders, "You're fourteen—a genius fourteen year old, don't get me wrong, but when I was your age, I was still bot fighting and sneaking alcohol with my old best friend and didn't know that I wanted to be a pilot quite yet." She looks up to see that Honey and Gogo have moved on and pulls him after them, "You have time to develop a robotics project, and time to grow a little taller, and time to figure out what you wanna do.

"And trust me," she grins as she shoves him forward, "we all know for a fact that you're going to be brilliant."

Hiro kinda wants to cry but these are happy, embarrassed tears and he hides them beneath being fussed over by Honey over his cold cheeks and nose. Maybe he should try and knit Abigail a scarf, the one she as around her neck is fraying and dull against her newer coat, but maybe that's the chill speaking from his toes. But Honey's side is warm and Gogo's rubbing warmth into his back and Abigail's leading them through the knotted up stores, and he decides it's important to figure out which of his teammates would be best to ask for help about this project.

It's a tiny importance, but it's important all the same, and the air is crisp with new ideas breathing in and out like the e-cig vapor Abigail exhales in shades of peppermint spice.

* * *

Honey knows fashion, Wasabi knits, Gogo has an eye for dyeing and Fred is too enthusiastic about life to leave out, to say nothing of Baymax's reassuring presence.

Aunt Cass laughs when Hiro pricks his finger again and yes, he sucks at this but this is gonna be the greatest scarf in the history of forever. Water and stain phobic, fire proof, static resistant, it's 20 feet of specially designed fibers to act like silk on steroids, thin but heat retaining without being crinkly, and it's a soft dusky white with delicate orange and gold swirl print that can be knotted in 200 different ways, and protect Abigail's neck while she's on her hoverboard. Maybe she can even use it as a weapon, it's strong enough for Hiro to hold onto while Baymax tugs the scarf over San Fransokyo without fraying, and judging from Honey's jealous glances Hiro wonders if he can sell this.

But first, Abigail. Hiro ducks his head when Gogo snaps her gum, "Impressive, boy genius. She's going to love it."

"It's so cute," Honey runs her hands over the silk, "I'm sooo going to ask you for this during the summer, it would make for perfect dresses!"

Hmm, it could also work as a super thin and super strong undersuit for their super suits. Hiro's calves get a beating from wind shear up in the air and he's already planning for black dyed super socks to protect his skinny chicken legs. He rubs his forehead to get his priorities on straight and presses his back to Wasabi's side since he's warm and Hiro has a love-hate relationship with the cold.

Yes, cold is painful, but at least it means you're not on fire, but then again death is also cold, so really it's in everyone's best interest to just stay warm.

He snorts when Fred stabs himself with Wasabi's needles and gets the "on a scale of one to ten" routine from Baymax. But it's integral for Baymax to be a worrywart, always shuffling into people's business and giving out the best hypothermia-busting hugs. Hiro looks down at Abigail's present and yes, this is good, this is important, he's made something that isn't completely based on someone else's work and maybe

maybe he can do something with his microbots in his own life mission. Those were his robots that Callaghan corrupted and made into weapons, those were Hiro's and maybe he doesn't want them back as they were but they got him into nerd school, maybe they can give him a new purpose beyond the obvious Big Hero stuff.

His stomach grumbles and everyone pushes him downstairs to pig out on peppermint bark macarons and abuelita that Honey helps Aunt Cass make, and Gogo calls Abigail since the presents are packed away and there's an empty space by Baymax that needs filling. Hiro wonders if they're all going to go to the temple on New Years, since Tadashi is dead but Abigail is now his claimed older sister and Baymax counts as family and so does everyone else now.

There's so much going on in his stupid empty brain so he just sits between Gogo and Baymax and sips abuelita, savoring the warmth. He misses Tadashi, the holidays are so off-putting without him. But then Abigail comes and squeezes into the lot of them and Aunt Cass makes them all watch Attack of the 50 Foot Snowman with her. Fred loves that movie and he and Cass geek out over the crap special effects, and Wasabi and Honey fight over the macarons while Gogo and Abigail keep out-commenting each other for a last word that Hiro doesn't get but laughs at anyway.

Mochi curls up into Hiro's lap and purrs away a storm, and Baymax is everyone's pillow but especially Hiro, who rests his head where Tadashi's face would shine through the vinyl when asked. His loved ones are here and it's warm and he hasn't got a clue what he's doing with his life for now but he has a few ideas, and Hiro relaxes just enough for the tension of Fred's question to slide away and dissolve into empty cups of abuelita.

* * *

There's fireworks outside up by the koi fish turbines and temple bells ringing all over San Fransokyo, and Hiro watches them all with Baymax from atop a skyscraper. He's supposed to be home with Aunt Cass but right now he needs to think and the air is cold enough up here to keep the tears at bay.

"I am detecting increasing levels of stress and depression from you," Baymax scans.

Hiro sniffles, "I'm just being sad, that's all."

Tadashi loved New Years, he loved the food and the temples and the people, and he would always help Hiro put on a kimono for morning celebrations. Sure, it's easier to put on than the woman's kimono tucked away with the rest of their mother's belongings, but now Hiro has to do it by himself and his hands shake too much.

"Would it help if I play more of Tadashi's recordings?" Baymax blinks and he's a healthcare robot but his voice is doing the softening Thing like Tadashi used to do and Hiro finally cries.

"Please," he asks first in English then in Japanese, and Hiro watches his brother come back to life in short snippets.

In some of them, he forgets to turn off Baymax's recording video and he works at his desk, chugs energy drinks, sleeps under his chair and runs off to pick up Hiro from another bot fight gone sour. Hiro wonders how he would always find him but figures he appreciates the older brother mystery, and catches Tadashi mumbling, "That kid is going to be the death of me."

Hiro catches a sob in his frozen hands and he needs mittens, he needs a scarf, he needs Tadashi to come warm up his hands and hide together in the kotatsu and kiss his forehead when Hiro is so blown back by sudden grief that he's 3 years old again. Maybe if Hiro had pulled Tadashi back, maybe if Hiro had taken the neurotransmitter with him when he left his exhibit, maybe if Hiro had met Abigail earlier and convinced her not to enter the portal, Tadashi could be here watching the fireworks with Hiro and keeping away the cold.

"It's ok to cry," Baymax soothes, and Hiro crawls into his embrace, wanting to cut out all the rotten pieces of grief still sticking to his heart. It's been a few months and it still hurts so bad, Tadashi is gone but not really but kinda really and there's no easy bandaid for this kind of pain.

"Thank you Baymax," Hiro wipes his eyes once his crying jag is over, and then wipes at the tear stained vinyl, "Sorry."

"I am a robot, I cannot be offended."

Hiro laughs because there's not much else to do, and then watches the fireworks for a bit more. Aunt Cass will be waiting with warm hugs, and he can always ask his friends to come hide under the kotatsu with him, and Abigail's already lived through Hiro's cuddle attack, maybe she can kiss his forehead too. Maybe Mochi will if all else fails, and Hiro laughs a bit more at the image, feeling the grief lift up and pass along with the sound of temple bells.

Baymax flies him back home before Aunt Cass notices, and he joins her for one of the songs on Kouhaku Uta Gassen. "I didn't know people still watched this," he says, "wasn't this popular when you and my mom and dad were little?"

"It's a tradition," Cass ruffles his hair, "Your mom would always predict who would win, she conned me and your father out of a lot of money."

Hiro smiles, then sits closer to his aunt and asks, "can you tell me about them?"

It turns out that Mae Hamada née Rudolph conned more than just money from her little sister and hapless boyfriend. She got Cass to clean the entire house every week, got Tomeo to convince his Japanese speaking friends to pronounce her name like "mei" instead of "maeh", and conned both of them into dancing at the major temple in San Fransokyo on New Year's in ballerina tutus in a plot so convoluted that even Cass doesn't get how it happened.

During the course of the stories his head ends up in her lap and her fingers are in his hair, just like Tadashi and Abigail and maybe once upon a time his con artist mother and his long suffering father. Baymax is nestled by his side, recording everything for future reference, and Hiro asks softly, "Does the hurt ever go away?"

The fingers still before brushing along his hairline down to his cheek, "No, but it gets easier to breathe around it."

Aunt Cass has lost her older sister, her brother-in-law and her nephew, and Hiro doesn't get how she can function like this when he still falls apart. Then he remembers that stability is important for her because he is important to her, and he mumbles, "I love you."

He can hear her get all sniffly from his admittedly rare declaration of affection, and he decides to say it more often. She's important, his cobbled together family is important like the city he protects, and living up to Tadashi's hopes is so important that it leaves Hiro breathless. There's hands in his hair and his friends' hands on his back though, so he plans on making it through.

* * *

They love their gifts, Hiro blushes when Honey chokes him into a giant hug and rumples his carefully pressed kimono.

They're in the cafe, dressed in their New Year's best and Hiro being cooed over because apparently none of them have ever seen him in traditional dress before and he's adorable again. Cass takes pictures with Honey and Hiro and Gogo share their grief over his kimono and her hanbok, while Wasabi tries to explain to Fred that no, beanies do not go with semi-formal attire.

Abigail looks a little sad and lost and Hiro blames her father since she most likely had her own New Year's traditions derailed by the previous year. But then she opens her scarf and she's squishing Hiro into a hug, spinning him around and making everyone laugh at how tiny he is. Hiro grumbles and hisses like Mochi and Baymax hugs him and lectures his friends about adolescent mood swings.

Everything is bright and colorful and there's New Year's red replacing Gogo's hair streaks and Honey teaching both Spanish and German holiday songs to the woefully incompetent bunch; Gogo nails them all with a Korean song and Hiro's shy Japanese has them all singing along to the bilingual radio.

Hiro pouts and sticks his tongue out and smiles so much that his cheeks hurt, and he ends up smushed against Abigail, Cass and Hamada while he challenges Gogo to an ill-conceived arm wrestle. Gogo beats everyone except for Wasabi who she battles to a draw and Cass breaks out the mochi and kurikinton to munch on while they go around on temple runs in San Fransokyo.

Nothing hurts today, not even when Hiro lights incense for Tadashi and his parents that night to wish them a Happy New Years, because everyone is with him and he was right, he can make it through as long as his important people are here to keep him warm.

Hiro leads them all on a midnight flight over the continuous fireworks. They swirl around the colors as shouts of celebration rise into the sky, and they welcome the new year with all the determination that has surrounded them as long as Abigail studied for her pilot's license at the age of 12, as long as Fred fought for various charities, as long as Gogo pushed her limits, as long as Wasabi rose above his family's disadvantaged background, as long as Honey forced femininity into her fielkd of study, as long as Tadashi ever protected Hiro and Baymax ever protected Hiro and Hiro protected Baymax and Tadashi's memory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know when I said that these drabbles weren't gonna be too connected? I lied for this one XD
> 
> These drabbles centered around New Years (my timeline of It's a Body Shock puts them in the end of December when Baymax 2.5 is made, which is kinda awkward considering that they're starting winter quarter at SFIT at this time as well but now it's New Years, but whatever, we don't need to think too hard about this)
> 
> These also centered around Hiro's relationship to temperature, personal importance, more Hiro and Abigail fluff, and general Big Hero 7 fluff with special mention to Cass Hamada née Rudolph, who got adopted into the Hamadas when her sister and bol were alive and kept the name as she raised her siblings. Dem headcanons lol
> 
> Anyway, I hope you liked these!


	3. AU Chapter #1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We interrupt your regularly schedules drabble fics for a specific story chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> because I am a sadist to my characters, especially my sweet sensitive small science son
> 
> NOTE: this is a "canon compliant AU" in which the plot of BH6 evolves 90% the same but there's extra stuff. it's basically a rewrite of certain scenes with 100% more sad Hiro. if you've read Five Alarm Death March and Sophie's Universal Singularity (which you should've if you're reading this story), then you'll recognize some of the situations.
> 
> mentions of self harm, gore, suicidal thoughts and eating disorders within, read at your discretion
> 
> disclaimer: I don't own the copyrighted material within

Tadashi smiles at Hiro and it's his big beaming "I'm so proud of you little brother" times twenty because now Hiro's in college, about to change the world with that big brain of his. They're all going to celebrate, Fred already prodding Aunt Cass about what's on the menu for tonight, and Hiro ducks his head when Tadashi speaks into his ear, "You're incredible."

Hiro can be a quiet thing at times, so the grin stretching across his face just lights up Tadashi's world. Hiro straightens up, ears red, and yells, "Wait, gotta get my neurotransmitter from my display!" and heads back into the building. Tadashi follows, watching his little brother weave between people like the toddler Tadashi raised. He hopes that his parents can forgive him for wanting Hiro to be his, because Hiro is his otouto, his baby, and

and there's an explosion, there's fire racing up the walls and it's like a car crash but so much worse.

People are screaming and knocking each other over and where is Hiro? Hiro is cowering by a burning exhibit, holding onto a bleeding arm and his wide brown eyes are so filled with fear that any hesitation Tadashi holds burns away. Hiro needs to live, someone has to help and Tadashi is the embodiment of fraternal loyalty.

He carries Hiro away from the flames but they're trapped, too many flames and dead parents and Hiro's gasping "Niisan" into Tadashi's shirt and he only does that when the fear and pain is too much. He hears people yelling for Prof. Callaghan and oh god no, not his mentor too, he needs to get Hiro out and then he's going to save everyone else because no one deserves to die in flames.

They finally escape and Tadashi sets Hiro down past the stairs, watching his brother cough away the toxic smoke clinging to his lungs and skin. Tadashi hears a cry of pain from within the inferno and he has to help, he can't let someone die like this. Hiro says no and Tadashi kisses his forehead, "I love you," before returning to the flames.

Inside he sees Prof. Callaghan with the neurotransmitter, sees his mentor make eye contact before resolutely surrounding himself with Hiro's microbots, his brother's stolen microbots, and runs back towards the doors.

He's ten feet away before the fire explodes again and his skin burns so hotly that it's freezing and Hiro's crying, Hiro's choking on the scent of his niisan burning and holding out his arms that only catch burning glass into the delicate skin. Tadashi wants to crawl away from the pain into those arms but then a ceiling beam falls and

he tells his parents he's so, so sorry.

* * *

Hiro doesn't eat after he passes his brother's bones between chopsticks. He doesn't eat after his brother's urn is interred with his parents' in the graveyard, or at the funeral reception, or the nights after because Tadashi is dead and Hiro smelled him burn and how is he supposed to eat after that?

He can feel his arms ache hollow under his bandages and his stomach tremble empty but he can't do it, he can't get out of bed and greet the sun so much less than consume food. Aunt Cass comes to collect last night's uneaten plate and Hiro curls up under his covers, forehead burning from the memory of Tadashi's last words and his own self-hatred because Hiro never said I love you back.

He cries and he cries so hard that his heart bleeds, his mind gushes grief between his fingers as he reaches out towards the flames and screams for his brother. He only collects burning flakes of skin and glass embedding into his skin, and Hiro pulls at the stitches in his arms. It hurts and the tang of blood clogs his mouth with memories of skinned knees and Tadashi kissing them better when his parents couldn't, and

and it hurts so bad, Hiro wants to drop dead and join the rest of his family.

He kicks off his blankets and considers the edge of a discarded screwdriver.

But then Mochi slinks into the room and curls up on his lap, purring away a storm and nuzzling against his aching arms, and Hiro hides his tears of shame and guilt into Mochi's fur. What about Aunt Cass, the one pillar of strength in his life when the burning roof has collapsed around him? What about Tadashi's friends, who still call him time to time to remind him that there's a sun outside and all he has to do is step outside? What about Mochi?

Hiro doesn't step outside, and he doesn't eat, but he's alive, and that's a victory within itself.

* * *

Baymax is concerned for his patient.

Hiro is a young adolescent a bit behind on the growing curve but now entering puberty, yet his body weight is low, his injuries are not healing as quickly as they should, and there's a panicky sadness to his movements that has no place in a healthy patient. When Baymax downloads a database on grief and personal loss, he understands, and he goes along with Hiro's plan to apprehend the masked man.

Using San Fransokyo's wifi, he also downloads more information on teenage grief, teenage coping methods, and things he deeply prefers Hiro need not suffer through. Tadashi is here, yet he cannot help convince Hiro to eat and stop tearing at his stitches, so Baymax will have to do it himself. It's easy enough to remove the torn stitches and sew the wounds back up, but Baymax worries about scar tissue and the far away glaze in Hiro's eyes.

Alas, they are unsuccessful in apprehending the masked man, and Hiro sustains more injuries to his arms and the beginning phase of hypothermia. Baymax watches Hiro draw in on himself, looking "down" or "blue" as outward behavioral symptoms of depression are called, and applies more comforting contact to try and bring Hiro out of a self-destructive shell.

The treatment is partially successful, and the night after Hiro gathers his scans to create suits for his companions, Baymax watches him avoid sleep and avoid eating. "Hiro," Baymax advises, "during adolescence, 10-12 hours of sleep is recommended for optimum health and mental performance."

Hiro snorts and mumbles about how sleep is for the weak in Japanese; thankfully, Baymax can understand 20 languages, and counters with "It is also recommended for moderately active 14-18 year old males to ingest 2,400 to 2,800 calories per day. You have eaten approximately 1,000 calories in this 24 hour period," in Japanese.

Hiro flinches and puts up defensive barriers. "I'm fine, Baymax," he says, "just leave me alone."

"You are my patient," Baymax needs Hiro to understand this, "I cannot leave you alone while you require my attention."

"Busybody," Hiro hisses and moves to tear at his stitches again. Baymax catches his hand, applying a slight vibration to his finger servos, and Hiro looks down in shame. He gulps past tears, despite it being alright to cry when emotionally distressed, and whispers, "I'll be alright, just...just let me finish this first, ok? Then I'll go to sleep."

"You have lost 10 pounds in the 3 weeks since I first scanned you," Baymax picks up Hiro's discarded dinner, "I highly recommend consuming this and going to bed." Baymax blinks, "You are my patient, I only want you happy and healthy."

Hiro's squeezes his eyes shut, and he eats the rice and steamed vegetables (he avoids the cooked chicken, Baymax stores this information for later) before crawling into bed and curling into himself. His breathing hitches and Baymax wants to ask why Hiro is doing this to himself, but he already knows the answer, and Hiro eventually falls asleep. Baymax regrets causing Hiro emotional distress, but someone has to push him out of spiraling self-destruction, and Tadashi isn't quite here for that.

* * *

Hiro is exhausted when they touch down on Akuma Island, shaking and light headed and maybe he should've eaten more of his breakfast today. Too late for that though, and he slouches within the group, he wants to reach out and take comfort in their colorful warmth but the burn in his stomach and arm hold him back.

Instead he watches as a pilot is consumed by flames. His heart stutters to a stop because that was someone's daughter, maybe someone's older sister, and now she's burned to death in the black hole and her ashes will smell so sweet against the ozone of her suit. And she looks so determined before she dies, Hiro recalls that expression from a lifetime ago.

When Tadashi took him to the nerd lab, Prof. Callaghan (and oh, Prof. Callaghan, he burned away too) showed them a picture of his former bot fighting daughter, Tadashi's former TA and friendly associate. Tadashi and Prof. Callaghan were into scare tactics, and the story behind the picture of her at the oral surgeon still makes Hiro cringe.

She had wild hair, eyes filled with challenge, and all of her front teeth were missing, soon to be replaced with implants to save her pretty face; Yama wasn't just big talk, after all, and he didn't like losing. That was one of the reasons why Hiro gave up bot fighting, he didn't want his face smashed in like her. Maybe if he avoids bot fighting and anything to do with Krei, he also won't burn to death like the pilot or Tadashi or his parents.

But maybe he'll be like Callaghan, because Callaghan is the man behind the mask and he admits to letting Tadashi die. Sure, he didn't actively hold Tadashi down as the building exploded, but he caused the fire, he stole the microbots for himself, and he allowed Tadashi to run back to the stairs and die ten feet away from Hiro's outstretched arms.

"He went in there to save you," Hiro feels his face and voice twist up like limbs shriveling up into charcoal, crackled bones ready to be passed by chopsticks.

"That was his mistake!"

And Hiro feels a tear run down his cheek to stain his lips with salt, making the sweet taste of Tadashi's body so much more bitter in his churning stomach. He recoils, one step two step back to Baymax who scans Hiro and can see the hysteria building. He hyperventilates past the horror and grief lodged in his throat and Honey asks if he's ok but Hirois not ok. Hiro's starving and he wants to rip out his stitches and gouge his arms open and he wants Callaghan dead, Callaghan killed Tadashi his older brother his niisan his father figure

why does he deserve to live?

Hiro clutches Baymax's caregiving chip to his lips, kisses the forehead of the little smiling doctor, and his voice is possessed with hate. "Destroy him, Baymax," Hiro sees Callaghan run away in fear and yells after him, "Rip him apart!"

But Hiro's once-friends stop him and Callaghan gets away and Hiro flies back home, fingers shaking with rage and hunger and he won't stop until Callaghan is nothing but ashes in the wind.

* * *

Tadashi is here.

He's in the ground but he's also he's in Baymax's archives and Hiro watches his brother. Tadashi is nervous in these videos, frustrated, tired of dealing with his faulty robotics project and his bonehead wayward brother. Tadashi is so happy at the end, so overjoyed to have built Baymax and so excited to make Hiro meet him and lead them both into a future that could've been everything that Hiro wishes for.

They could've stopped Callaghan together, they could've gone to school together, they could've lived together and gotten older together and changed the world together and Tadashi is gone

but his love is still here.

Hiro cups his hands over his mouth to swallow down the raw sobs that tear his insides apart, then wipes at his eyes and laugh-sobs in joy-agony at Tadashi through the vinyl. He remembers that Tadashi's last words were "I love you", and Hiro breaks down completely, resting his forehead against Baymax's middle and balling his hollow hands into fists that want to beat himself senseless for violating Baymax, for betraying his friends, for ever being like Callaghan and not like Tadashi.

Baymax hugs him close, and says, "It's alright to cry."

Hiro does, for a long while.

And when he's done he wipes his eyes again and gets down into a proper bow and shivers, "I'm so, so sorry."

Baymax forgives him, and his friends—they had watched everything, they'd seen Hiro's rage and Hiro's absolute sorrow—do the same. Gogo hugs him and then the rest, he feels warm in their arms and it's not Tadashi at all but it soothes some of the pain away, he feels small again in the arms of Aunt Cass and oh, she'd be so disappointed in him.

"We're going to do this right," Gogo says, and Hiro wants to believe her.

So when he sees Abigail, wild haired eyes holding a challenge former bot fighter Abigail Callaghan who used to TA Tadashi's aerodynamics class, disappear into the portal, Hiro knows what to do. He's going to stop Callaghan, stop his own rage from poisoning what Tadashi would've wanted for his life, and they're all going to do it right together.

* * *

The portal's inner dimension is so beautiful, and so terribly cold that it burns at Hiro's unprotected legs and his shaking fingers; his stitches ache and for one he wants to leave them be. He wipes away the frost from Abigail's windscreen, and swears that there's frozen teardrops on her eyelashes, or maybe those are his because Baymax's thrusters are broken and he can't lose Baymax too.

He stalls for time they don't have and beg for answers that don't exist, and he has to let Baymax go. Technicolor smoke curls around his ankles and he's kneeling in front of another grave, arms outstretched to gather more broken glass in his wrists. Baymax is not Tadashi but he has Tadashi's love and his own soul and he's already Hiro's best friend, how can he be satisfied with his care.

He hugs Baymax close and cries some more, and feels his tears freeze to his cheeks. This will never be fair and he will battle against this hurt for the rest of his life along with all the rest, and Hiro's going to have to live with that.

Hiro sits back and chokes out, "I'm satisfied with my care," and watches Baymax fall alone into the deep, crematory smoke curling around the last piece of Tadashi that Hiro had.

He and Abigail land harshly, and Hiro rests against the pod, getting his sobs under control before he has to face reality because life doesn't care much for the Hamada family. He doesn't answer Wasabi's question and turns to look at Abigail, who stutters back into consciousness. Her eyes meet his, wide and confused and filled with tears that neither of them can explain, and Hiro decides that he wants to get to know her, Tadashi's TA and friend and the girl that Callaghan destroyed Hiro's life over.

She raises a weak hand and Hiro's hands remind him that he's running on multidimensional fumes, and Wasabi has to carry him out of the rubble before the cops show up.

He eats half a sandwich when prompted, because he can still remember Baymax telling him to.

* * *

Hiro is accepted into SFIT, and there's a therapist there who doesn't ask why Hiro is there, only how he hurts. Aunt Cass and his friends aren't supposed to know but Hiro bets that they do, and he hopes that they don't think him weak for seeking out help after he whited out from hunger in the bathroom and tore open those damn stitches again. He's sick of the aching injuries, the scar tissue he knows will be ugly, and maybe Baymax isn't here to help but Hiro Hamada is still alive and he might as well take care of himself.

It helps, talking to someone without the context of being a Big Hero and a little orphan three times over, and he is comfortable eating vegetables and grains by the time he rediscovers Baymax's chip.

Then everything is focused around rebuilding Baymax and his own classes and reaching out to Abigail, who is his TA in two classes. She goes to the therapist too, for rage issues directed at her father and herself, and sometimes they hang out in the reception room, checking over improved Baymax 2.5 schematics. She's confident and blunt and a little fragile, and Hiro's heart can't handle losing anyone else but he takes the chance and starts to love her anyway.

She craves physical contact and her hugs are almost as good as Tadashi's fantastic without the comparison, and she gently introduces him to chicken udon. Hiro chokes on the first bite but the second tastes good, and he finishes the whole bowl while Abigail pays for everything.

His friends are around him, keeping him warm and on track with his health, and when Baymax is finally operational, he's halfway back to a healthy weight. With Baymax's healthcare companionship, and Abigail stuffing him with somewhat healthy-ish food at Shizu's and Nene's, and Gogo and Honey's parents feeding Hiro when he goes over to their homes to study, and Wasabi teaching Hiro how to cook vegetarian meals, and Fred flat out buying whatever Hiro craves, he's back to that weight and a bit more very quickly.

Sometimes he slips up into bad habits, but these moments are rare in the rush of flying around skyscrapers and spending sleepovers at the lab with his friends and saving older brothers from burning buildings for the sake of little brothers. Hiro will always have that grief and rage and self-destruction hiding beneath his arm's scar tissue, but Baymax applies treatments to lessen the build up, and Hiro's loved ones never shame him for it.

Hiro works with Aunt Cass on Thursdays, savoring her presence, and in the other days he's at school and around San Fransokyo, savoring his friends and not-quite-said-out-loud neesan. They're alive and they're there for him and it's a family he never knew he'd get after losing his birth one but it's his all the same.

And it's not perfect without Tadashi, Hiro still wishes that he could be here and be alive for Hiro to rely on and tell secrets to and try and make proud. But Tadashi is with their parents and maybe they're watching Hiro save the day and save himself, and that's good enough for his happy ending.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry Hiro, I promise that I adore you as more than just a punching bag.
> 
> Anyway, this is how I would've written BH6 (minus the more obvious eating disorder and self harm moments because this is a bit intense for small children), so be happy that I don't work for Disney XD


	4. 13-17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> because I'm exhausted from Black Friday shopping and want to retaliate with some more angst
> 
> someone rescue my characters from me
> 
> disclaimer: I don't own the copyrighted material within

Wasabi ruffles Hiro's hair when he walks by in the lab, and Hiro sticks out his tongue.

Apparently none of his friends have ever seen a boy with spiky hair, since they won't stop touching it. Wasabi ruffles, Gogo flips, Fred noogies, Honey sneaks cute little clips in and Abigail alternates between running her fingers through in a rush of tingles and tugging on his hair like Aunt Cass tugging at his ear. Even Nene messes with his hair when he gorges himself on gummy bear sundaes during homework sessions, and Hiro doesn't get it.

Fred charges through, enthusiastic about more fake science, and ruins the rest of Hiro's hair. Hiro whines, "Stop, I'm trying to focus on robot stuff and—"

His eyes widen, then he yelps as a static charge surges from his in-progress robot built to his thumb. "Oww!" Baymax inflates to the general hilarity of the people around him, and Hiro sucks on his thumb. Fred does a double take...then frizzes Hiro's hair up again, and Hiro can hear the air sharpen. "What are you doing?"

"By the power of Thor!" and Fred shoves Hiro into Gogo, who shrieks like a very small child when she electrocutes herself on her bike. Fred belly laughs as Honey and Wasabi titter behind the safety of insulated glass, and raises his hands when Gogo rounds on him, "It's a science experiment!"

Gogo digs her hand into Hiro's hair, charges up another round, and shocks Fred onto the floor. Hiro yells and Fred declares war and Baymax is unsuccessful in navigating his way to his patient. Fred shocks Gogo into Gigi Nguyen, who shocks Elio Miura, who shocks all the way around the room to Honey who squeals and shocks both Fred and Wasabi at once.

Hiro's hair defies gravity and Abigail walks in on him snarling like a bath soaked Mochi, slapping at Gogo's hands while she uses him to taser Fred in the face. "Umm?"

"Hiro is in great distress," Baymax remarks as Hiro starts yelling at everyone in filthy Japanese, "although I am not too concerned about his bodily safety."

Abigail looks at the web of black electricity sparking on his head, then bursts into giggles because Tadashi's hair did the same thing and there was a good reason why he wore a baseball cap 24/7. She tells Hiro so once she manages to rescue him from the Fred vs Gogo War, and he groans as Baymax looks him over, "Such a wasted opportunity."

Then she runs her fingers through his hair and he whines a bit more.

* * *

Honey rubs her chin, appraising Abigail and Gogo from their heads to their toes, then nods, "I have all of your body types in my room."

They'd been invited to a seminar for SFIT's female students, celebrating the continuous smashing of glass ceilings, and so of course they'd have to dress to impress potential sponsors and internship organizers. In Honey's cozy flat above the school coffee shop a spectrum of dresses pile upon each other on overstuffed chairs and lolita coord diagrams, and Gogo rubs her arms, "This seems a bit excessive."

"The other girls at Dizzy Kei are pulling from the piles, and I invited Nene over to look later," Honey rummages in a box of puffy petticoats, "Any color requests?"

"Yellow," and Abigail's heart flutter just a bit when Gogo yanks off her top, "something not too frilly either, I want to move around and not tear up lace or whatever."

Honey giggles about savages and Abigail runs her hand through a pile, eyes searching for a favorable color palette. However, her mind lingers on technicolors not so easily translated into silks and polyesters, and she sucks on her e-cig mouthpiece. Gogo seeks her sulk and snaps Abigail's bra strap, "Pick out something pretty, make everyone jealous of those thighs."

Abigail grins, "Like I can compare with your calves?" and Operation Find Gogo Replacement is going down in flames but whatever, Honey finds Gogo a high necked body fitting yellow qipao that has Abigail seeing new dimensions. Honey herself is decked out in "business-loli", all pastel pinks and somehow convincing a business suit to have a cupcake skirt, and Abigail is left alone in her bra ad short shorts.

Until she sees it.

It's much softer than her more stark, casual style, tulle spilling from a pearl studded empire waist to froth just beneath her knees. And the colors play with each other, teal against coral, lavender against light gold, and when she puts it on and twirls it's like spinning through the portal without the pain. It's not as bodycon as Gogo nor as poofy as Honey's—the waist is relaxed, letting her breathe, and when she takes a sip of apricot menthol she feels in charge.

She looks at Gogo and Honey and asks, "What do you think?"

Gogo cracks her gum, "If we weren't teammates, I'd totally take you into the other room."

All three of them laugh and do their makeup, Honey pinning flowers that bear Big Hero colors in the petals to their dresses. Then Honey pins up Abigail's hair, drawing chic from her rather boring locks, and when Nene walks in to nonchalantly strip down, Abigail looks even lovelier than her beauty queen mother.

Once Nene puts on a modernized kimono and Carol Nguyen squeals with Honey over new commissions, they all head out to the seminar. Abigail meets awestruck eyes of her peers and superiors with her chin lifted and her strappy heels clacking powerhouse concerto on the marble floors. Gogo is wooed by one of the major automobile companies, Honey strikes up an alliance between various sororities to support San Fransokyo's charity closet, and Abigail spies Nene having an interesting tete-a-tete with another former bot fighter.

And Abigail herself smirks at everyone who'd put her down after the Yokai incident, sampling all the little cakes and making sponsors squirm from her direct charm. Her shoes shine under the lights, and she exhales colorful vapor that matches her dress, sizing up her future and considering.

* * *

Wasabi presses his hand to Abigail's waist, and she bites down around a curse. She hears Fred, Gogo and Honey annihilate the dipstick in the shark powered jet pack who thought it was hilarious to try and create a sharknado straight from Fred's comic books, and she wishes she could help but alas, shark bites are painful.

Hiro wrings his hands by her side because there's blood everywhere and she wants to smack him upside the head and knock away all the guilt welling up like rotten honey in his eyes. She fingers the torn edges of her super suit, hypercompetent fabric fraying ever so slightly, and she sighs, "If I'd been wearing my sweatpants, I wouldn't have a leg."

Hiro flinches and Wasabi presses down harder, "ETA on Baymax, little man?"

"H-He's circling back from Honey," Hiro wrings harder until Abigail grabs his hands, and his eyes fix on her leg, "Do we have to go to the hospital?"

Baymax says that they have to go to the hospital, and this is not good. So far they've avoided actual injuries that can't be fixed by their personal butt-saving companion, keeping them away from the bothersome, identity-outing paperwork that regulated healthcare comes with. Abigail gags at the teeth marks along her ribs when Baymax dresses them, and Wasabi keeps Hiro from freaking out too badly.

Thankfully, they all congregate after Shark Face is put down, and the ER nurses all whisper behind their hands like starstruck shoujo when Fred nearly burns down the doors in his haste to bring Abigail inside. She gets stitched up with the promise of a new set of scars that hopefully are sexy instead of scary and can be explained to those outside of the know, and then the nurses and surgeon freeze up because they need her identity for payment and stuff and this is going to suck.

Honey whispers, "How much?" and it's a lot. Hospital people in suits instead of scrubs come to talk to the worried nurses with paparazzi eyes, and Abigail wants to run.

But then Alistair Krei waltzes in like he owns the place (he probably does, Abigail recoils in her mind), waving away nosy hospital officials with,"Whatever their injuries cost, I'll cover it pro-bono." He is so slick, convincing everyone that no, their identities can totally remain confidential as they should for the safety of San Fransokyo, and if the officials need a bit more money to cover that cost then well, he wasn't hurting for cash.

They're saved and Abigail wants to hug her knees to her chest but her abdomen has fresh stitches and she doesn't want anymore scars caused by Krei, her elbows sting subzero when he meets her gaze. Hiro takes the lead and half-smiles, "Thank you, Mr. Krei, this is...unexpected."

Krei BSes for a bit because he can't help himself, but when Abigail is frozen and the other heroes are too unnerved to laugh, he drops the act. "It's the least I can do," and his voice is soft, almost sincere to Abigail's ear, "for the people who saved my life, and the person I owe greatly."

Abigail flinches and Hiro looks back to put his hand near hers. She smiles a bit and grabs onto his fingers, seeking his warmth.

"If you don't mind, I'll gladly cover any medical bills," Krei plays on his phone, "it's perfect publicity for me, and this way you don't die before you graduate, Mr. Hamada."

Hiro takes a half step back towards Abigail and Krei smiles, "Your secret is safe with me, but keep your visor on when you save multimillionaire hostages?"

"R-Right," Hiro half-laughs and Abigail still sees the guilt in his eyes.

She frowns, then sucks up her dislike of Krei, and sits up for her team's sake, "Thank you, Mr. Alistair," she flashes her shiny white teeth, "We'll try not to abuse your generosity."

When he leaves she lays back down and asks for the good expensive pain killers. No one stops her because there's fragments of broken trust realigning in her eyes with all the unhappiness brought on by Robert Callaghan's death sentence, and they can imagine how this generosity much sting at her elbows. Fred goes out to get her good hospital food and Hiro sticks by her side, rubbing at his eyes until she exhales, "I'll jump in front of sharks for you any day, so get used to it and stop being so guilty."

His lips quirk upwards and she pulls everyone in for a hug, Baymax too because he's a giant healthcare marshmallow, and the promise of future scars in their stomachs is soothed away for a while.

* * *

All of them get nightmares, it's a given with what they've lived through. But Hiro is only fourteen and the fire still burns under his skin along with all the times he could've disappointed his brother so badly.

This night he dreams of what could've been, squished against the couch armrest and Fred after a Godzilla marathon/team bonding mission. He slips deep into the dark, tormented by flashes of searing heart on his arms and glass digging into his eyes and Tadashi is gone, Tadashi is dead and his bones were broken to ash before they could pass chopsticks and

Callaghan is there, maskless and spitting that Tadashi's death was his own mistake. Hiro feels tears burn plasma down his cheeks and instead of turning to Baymax, he looks down and sees the demon mask. His neurotransmitter, his microbots controlled by this mask and abused for Callaghan's own needs, they were stolen from him like Tadashi was and Abigail's not dead so the entire loss meant absolutely nothing.

He picks up the mask and Gogo asks him what he's doing but Gogo isn't Tadashi no one is and Tadashi's dead because of one little thief. Baymax asks if this is what Tadashi would've wanted and he's dead, remember? he can't want anything now? and like a conductor he crescendos the microbots back into his control and pushes he team far away from the dark.

Callaghan moves to run and he slams him hard against the wall, and Abigail once said that she'd wished she'd died to make up for Tadashi but that isn't fair to Hiro, she isn't the one at fault here. It's Callaghan's fault, he did this and he doesn't care about Tadashi and why does he get to live after all the lives he's scattered with the ashes?

"Microbots," Hiro's voice is dark and twisted and broken apart like Tadashi's when he explained that mom and dad aren't coming back, "destroy!"

The microbots surge and flesh tears and Hiro becomes a murderer and Callaghan screams like how Tadashi screamed before he's crushed by burning rubble—

Hiro wakes up in a rush, heart racing and throat closed up. He trips away from Fred's side and out of Fred's room into the dark manor halls and he can't breathe past the smoke and blood and where's Abigail, where's Baymax, where's Aunt Cass, where's Tadashi?

Heathcliff finds him cowering under the kitchen sink and sits him down on a sofa, hot chocolate in a ridiculously ornate cup and a warm blanket around his shoulders. Hiro only gets half a moment to choke out a thank you before Heathcliff reappears with Baymax and a very groggy Abigail. Abigail yawns and Baymax asks what is troubling Hiro, and Hiro can't help it, the nightmare roils back up and he could've been a murderer and it hurts to know how much he's not like his brother.

Next thing he knows he's in Abigail's arms, slender hands steadying his hot chocolate and Baymax playing more Tadashi videos, soft Tadashi videos, Tadashi videos that make Hiro smile past the ache in his heart and make Abigail laugh into Hiro's hair. They stay like that for a while, Hiro finishing his cup and Abigail not asking questions, until Hiro finally says, "I-It was a nightmare, about me and your father."

Abigail twirls a lock of black hair around her finger, "I don't blame you, he wasn't on his best behavior when he tried to smash you guys with your microbots."

Hiro jolts hard and her arms steady him and he hides his shame in his hands, "I dreamed that It-took the mask after what he s-said about Tadashi and I killed him, I'm no b-better than he is, aren't I?"

"Hiro—"

"If I'd l-looked down, that's what would've happened, and he'd be dead!"

"Hiro no—"

"And then y-you'd still be in the portal and I'd be in prison and o-oh, Tadashi would've been s-so disappointed! He'd h-hate m-me!"

Abigail turns him to face her and narrows her eyes, "Tadashi Hamada loved you more than life itself, he'd never hate you in a thousand lifetimes." Then she expression softens with her words, "You had a nightmare, a bad ending what-if, and obviously you didn't since I'm here and my father's in prison and we're saving the city.

"Oh Hiro," she kisses his forehead and exhales above his sob, "if Tadashi is watching us, he'd be the opposite of disappointed, he'd be so proud of you."

Hiro is fourteen and thinks that he's a crybaby due to his natural sensitivity, but he cries without shame into her shoulder because she's alive and he's not a murderer and Tadashi might be gone but Hiro can feel his love in Abigail, in Baymax, in his friends and family and the skies above San Fransokyo. The hurt dies down back into the dark and he wakes up later to the scent of Wasabi making multigrain waffles, Honey taking a picture of him and Abigail with her fingers still in his hair and her lips to his forehead.

* * *

Hiro smiles as he bows three times in front of the little shrine, placing a little bowl of tempura udon by Tadashi's picture. There's no occasion for this, no holiday or death day or anniversary...it's just him and Tadashi in their room, Aunt Cass making chicken wings downstairs while Baymax observes and Mochi cleaning himself on the windowsill.

"I'm sure you must be tired of me only visiting when I'm crying" he shrugs at the shrine, "because I certainly am, and Prof. Chiang—you know, the Asian Cultures teacher that splits between SFIT and SFST?—gave me this idea about sharing a bit of my day every day with you so you'll know I'm in good hands and I can...well, you know, get some peace about all of this with you and myself. So yeah," he rubs the back of his head, "This is so awkward, kaasan and tousan must be rolling in their graves, ne?"

He sits down on the bed and pulls out his notebook from his bag, "So you started doing heavy work on Baymax our freshman year because of that research grant the school gives out to major protects, right? Well, my ideas aren't nearly as cool as yours," Hiro shows off the design ideas in his notebook, flipping through pages of robots built to take down threats bigger than even Baymax can handle. He blushes, "Yeah, I know, they look like battle bots, and basically are battle bots, but I gotta start somewhere. Honey said that she blew up her family's toolshed when she was starting out, so if my King Katana prototype ends up skewering me to a wall, Baymax will lecture me in your place."

Hiro taps his bottom lip, then flips to a new page, "And I think I want to reclaim my microbots for myself. Make them smaller too, more nano than micro, because Nene—Nene Wakahisa? Kinda short, runs that dessert bar you and Abigail used to go to?—was taking about how in her kinesiology classes, a huge issue with rehabilitating paraplegic is both the disconnection between nerves and the wasting away of muscles as a result. And I was thinking, why not make nanobot braces and support structures and nerve connectors with smart skin applications?" He smiles bright and wide, "It's different from a neurotransmitter, since you can't consciously alter these bots into weapons; they work on biofeedback and sympathetic reactions to nerve triggers, and the smart skin itself is super interesting, if I figure out a way for the nanobots to be more like flesh it can replace amputated limbs and huge burns..."

Hiro's smile softens to something a bit more fragile in its expanse of hope, "Baymax is going to help a lot of people already, and I just want to make sure that everyone has a chance." He's silent for a moment, then laughs and lightly shoves the table the shrine is on, "Knock it off niisan, I said I'm not going to cry as much anymore. I don't have time for it," he squishes his face, "This new nanobot stuff is super awesome but suuuper hard to conceptualize, not to mention all of the team gear has to be upgraded to keep up with demand, and I also want to use the nanobots for my original ideas with the microbots, and whoever invented homework can eat my—"

"Hiro," Aunt Cass called out, "dinner's ready!"

"Ok!" Hiro closes his notebook and lingers by Tadashi's shrine, before ducking his head and mumbling, "So rest easy, ok? I'll probably get sad again, because I miss you, so so much...but it's getting better, and my friends are amazing, and I'm going to change the world. So yeah," he fist bumps his brother's picture frame, "tell mom and dad I said hi."

Hiro opens the door, watching Mochi leave for the kitchen...and whispers, "And I like Shizu's udon, but don't say I told you so!" before running downstairs to gossip with his aunt about the general hilarity of college

and maybe where pain doesn't exist and the universes are settled on a physical plane, tadashi looks down at one of the best options his parents have found, and whispers i love you too.

* * *

 

[Hiro's nightmare is inspired by this, I take no credit for it](http://holyhairbrush.tumblr.com/post/103615771483/i-guess-you-could-call-this-an-anti-hiro-au)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hurt Hiro a lot but then I want him to find peace and happiness and excitement in his new future so it balances out. And I wanted to touch on Abigail's mixed feelings towards Krei, the general awesomeness of the girls, and their extended classmates. I can't promise that Gigi Nguyen is gonna be important beyond a name I keep dropping, but Nene has a purpose, I can assure you.
> 
> Anyway, I hoped you liked this batch of drabbles! I threw in some Sophie's Universal Singularity at the end because I NEEEEEEEEEED to believe that Tadashi is watching Hiro from beyond and is just so proud of his baby brother, I NEEEEEEED that.


	5. 18-23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guiltyhipster this is entirely your fault and you should feel bad
> 
> disclaimer: I don’t own the copyrighted material within

_it begins with the expect hysteria_

* * *

Hiro curls tighter under the blankets, nails digging into his arms and his mouth rasping against the mattress with one two three dry sobs. It hurts, his throat hurts and his eyes hurt and his stomach hurts and his heart wants to finally break and drag him down into the black. He doesn’t know how to fix this, how to stop Aunt Cass from crying at night, how to stop himself from crying every second that Tadashi

Tadashi is dead, he died and he’s not here to show Hiro how to stop his sobbing and face the upcoming days weeks months lifetime alone. Hiro cries and there’s no more tears but it burns all the same; he cries for Tadashi, his brother, his niisan, the man who filled in the blanks called “father” in Hiro’s mind.

He lost them both, how is he supposed to get out of bed now when everything is so broken and bleeding and Tadashi isn’t here to fix this?

“Please,” he begs the still ashes lying six feet under, “please help me.”

They don’t answer, if Hiro’s parents don’t then why would Tadashi’s, doesn’t Hiro know that he’s alone now? Hiro chokes down another one two three dry sobs and spends the rest of the night in smothered silence, and the night after that, and the night after that.

* * *

_sure, it gets better when there are others around_

* * *

Hiro sighs; the Christmas lights aren’t going to come down themselves, but it’s cold outside and he’s feeble armed and Baymax 2.5’s designs need some more tweaking. Mochi kneads Hiro’s foot and Hiro whines, “Can’t we just leave them up? It’s still December!”

“We are not tacky,” Aunt Cass doesn’t bother to come downstairs with her retort, “and you need the exercise, noodle arms.”

“I do not have…that much of noodle arms!” Hiro grumbles and trudges outside, glaring at the lights. Stupid stapled on lights, Hiro wants to build a bot designed just for easy light removal, it would rake in the big bucks post-Christmas season. Alas, he has no bot, only a pair of pliers, and Hiro nearly kills himself when he yanks too hard and falls off his ladder.

Wasabi catches him; the whole gang is there, in the middle of heart attacks, and Gogo snaps, “Watch what you’re doing, genius!”

Hiro blushes and Abigail shakes her head, “You’re going at this all wrong, you need better leverage.” Wasabi sets Hiro down so he and Abigail can take over, “Here’s a lesson in denuding a house of moderately overpriced Christmas lights.”

Hiro watches them, and Hiro already knows what they’re talking about, even though Abigail is colorful in her language and Wasabi is needle precise in removing staples. Tadashi showed him how, when Hiro was 10 and Tadashi was prepping him for all the manly things people did in high school. It’s just hard to replicate Tadashi’s strength in Hiro’s noodle arms and quiet aching bleeding heart

no he’s not like his brother at all, isn’t he

but then Gogo takes the blinking lights and drapes them over Hiro’s shoulders, and Honey goes wild and strings them all up like Las Vegas snow girls. Fred starts a trip-drag snowball fight and Hiro is caught in the illuminated chaos, brought to laughter by Wasabi’s shrieks and Honey’s war cries, and nearly brought to tears by how good this feels.

No, he didn’t know that Fred’s voice can hit falsetto when snow is shoved down the back of his shirt, Hiro thanks his friends for teaching him that.

* * *

_but then it pops up with random problems he hadn’t thought of before_

* * *

Hiro wrinkles his nose when he looks down at the mess of knotted cables hooked into his desktop. This is why he wasn’t into computer science, he can’t even keep his headphones in order, how did this dumb computer science breadth requirement course expect him to keep track of whichever USB cable and Baymax scanner cord and homework linkups that decided to turn into a Gordian knot?

How did he even get it so tangled together in the first place? Hiro tugged on a cord and ended up tightening it, and rolled his eyes, “Tadashi, come and—”

Oh yeah. He bit his lip, remembering how Tadashi taught him to tie his shoelaces, and more importantly how to untie the thick knots Hiro would make with clumsy toddler fingers. Tadashi’s hands were always bigger than Hiro’s, Hiro was always looking up at Tadashi from the crib to the schoolyard to now because his shadow stretches just as far as his memory does.

Abigail says that Hiro might one day hit his growth spurt and edge up to Tadashi’s height, maybe even more, and Hiro imagines looking down on Tadashi looking down on those hands holding Hiro up guiding him forward pushing him back from the flames, looking down at an urn being lowered into fresh soil

Hiro shoves the mass of cables onto the floor and flips through a comic book he stole from Fred, counting dialogue boxes and refusing to fall apart.

If Baymax comes into the room and stands by silently, hand servos vibrating and soft voice sounding off to help soothe away the panichurtburningloss, then it still doesn’t count, because eventually Aunt Cass picks through the knot and the problem is solved.

* * *

_and then it’s metaphysics that no one has perfect answers for_

* * *

Hiro doesn’t know how to react when Marys Iosama bumps into him during their shared study period and makes his stomach clench, like Hiro’s riding Baymax into a portal to somewhere new and exciting and dangerous. Hiro doesn’t know how Marys’s brown hair looks so much nicer than the other brunettes at SFIT, or why her hazel eyes define a new shade of green for him, or why her hurried hellogoodbye made him want to blow his secret identity.

He asks Abigail why and she owes Honey 20 bucks because apparently she’d pegged him as never getting a crush until he’s 17. A crush? Like, one of those gooey romance sicknesses that infected all the dopey freshmen back in high school?

Wasabi says that it’s part of growing up, and Baymax agrees, and Hiro wants Tadashi’s opinion on this. Tadashi had a girlfriend or two in high school, and certainly never shut up about “Mariluz”/Honey in his first year of college, so he should know how to handle this.

Fred tells him that girls like stuffed dinosaurs and reading cheesy manga. Gogo tells him that girls like free food, free sweaters and being appreciated for their intelligence. Hiro ties his tongue in a knot when he sees Marys next because this is great advice but it’s not processing correctly and

and somehow she laughs anyway, blushes this really pretty shade of sakura, and they agree to get shaved ice after her rocket propulsion seminar is over

and Hiro hangs out with her for five hours, comes home with an empty wallet and a promise of another day spent with the most interesting girl in the world. She built the rockets that sent the newest space station into orbit, she’s working on glasses that are actually functional with the internet, she’s a little shy and high strung but she’s honest and ambitious and cheerful and so pretty.

Aunt Cass hugs Hiro and says that she can’t wait to meet her, and Hiro goes to bed staring at Tadashi’s side of the room. “What should I do?” he asks to the silent altar, “How would you do this?”

And Hiro can’t remember how Tadashi dated, or how Tadashi crushed, and he can’t ask for opinions and help now because as amazing as Abigail and Wasabi and Fred and Gogo and Honey are, they aren’t Tadashi, and Tadashi is dead remember?

He remembers, and he watches another Tadashi video through Baymax. He presses his hand to the vinyl and catches a dry sob in his throat, one two three, and he’s not his brother at all, he’s going to have to figure this out for himself.

* * *

_still, he grows_

* * *

Hiro shields his eyes from the glare of the fire, and the little boy crying into his shoulder tightens skinny arms around Hiro’s neck. Baymax is evacuating the bulk of the apartment building while the others pick off survivors and put out the flames, and he’s here with this mop headed little boy with a gap in his front teeth and cheeks stained with freckles and tears.

The boy’s name is Koji, and Hiro hushes as Koji cries harder, “I’m going to get you out, ok? Do you have an okaasan and otousan?”

Hiro ducks under a falling beam and kicks his way through drywall; the flames lick at his feet and Koji whispers, “Oneesan, my neesan.”

His voice is tiny like how Hiro’s wasiswas and Hiro asks, “Do you know where she is?”

“Away,” Koji hides his face into Hiro’s neck, and Hiro hikes him up higher onto his hip. Koji’s only four or so but he’s a heavy weight, an entire world perched on chicken legs and noodle arms and gap teeth, and how did Tadashi ever carry Hiro like he weighed like so much cotton candy dreams? The drywall gives and Hiro dashes down the hall, ignoring how every harsh turn away from flames made Koji cry “Neesan!”

Tadashi used to sing to Hiro when their parents were alive and for a while after, and Hiro doesn’t remember the words but he knows the rhythm and makes it up as he goes. He makes it a game with Koji, stomping to the stanza markers and clapping to the upbeats and dodging hellfire like running after a mother’s skirts. Koji laughs and the heat sears against Hiro’s throat, because Koji is heavy and his arms burn and there’s no way he could ever let him go.

The building shakes and someone, maybe Fred, blasts a gaping white escape route. Hiro runs for it, choking on ash and humming into Koji’s hair and it’s hot hot hot is this how Tadashi felt before he died oh please no

Hiro and Koji escape just as the building collapses, and they are swallowed into the sea of survivors. No deaths, only some smoke inhalation from those too close to the epicenter, and Hiro shies away from all the cheers because there’s something raw and bloody exposed on his chest. Koji coughs and Hiro rounds on Baymax, “Scan him!”

“Scan complete,” Baymax offers Koji a lollipop, “The patient is unharmed, save minor exposure to smoke. May I suggest locating his guardians?”

“Neesan,” Hiro looks around for someone who looks like Koji, but has to keep starting over because his eyes seek out a tall black haired man, not a woman—

“KOJI!”

“Neesan!” and it’s a short pink haired girl pushing her way through the crowd, holding out her arms in a big wide Tadashi hug, throwing Koji into the air like he weighed like so much cotton candy dreams. Koji’s cheers of “Neesan, oneesan!” heals the raw and bleeding something on Hiro’s chest, and maybe Tadashi wasn’t here to fix this but Hiro was and Koji will never even have to say goodbye to his neesan, not as long as Hiro is alive.

Hiro smiles and leaves with his team, still humming his song and considering the easy weight of all the little brothers and sisters in San Fransokyo.

* * *

_and that is all anyone can ask for_

* * *

Hiro doesn’t know what triggered him—one second he’s getting read the riot act by Abigail for completely screwing up his study session (date no session oh god it was a date Tadashi would kill him for screw this up so badly) with Marys, and the next he’s got his hands over his mouth to hold in hyperventilated screams. Abigail’s hands steady his shoulders as he slides down the wall and he’s a bonehead, an idiot, a waste, a worthless excuse for a brother who just let Tadashi run into an inferno to fix a problem that didn’t need solving

he doesn’t want to cry, he doesn’t but he hiccups and shudders and clutches onto Abigail’s shirt, one two three dry sobs and the pain is mostly passed. “Shh,” she whispers into his ear as her nails trail corkscrew shivers up and down his neck, “it’s alright, I’m here.”

“You are,” he forces out, “everyone is but Tadashi and why is that still hurting so bad?”

She sighs, “It hasn’t even been a year, not even half a year—Hiro,” she sits next to him and he leans against her because she’s warm despite the frozen ozone clinging to her ankles. Abigail takes a moment to run a thumb across his cheek and she asks, “Did you expect all of this to be “fixed” so quickly?”

“It has to be,” he says and his voice is quiet but oh so loud in its desperation, “everything’s still broken and I need to fix it so I can get good As and help Aunt Cass in the café and make sure nobody dies in any more fires.”

Abigail is quiet and Hiro doesn’t know why she’s looking at him with heartbreak, but then she hugs him close and begins, “Three years ago my best friend Taylor died in a car accident, and to this day it still hurts, even though I wasn’t there, and she wasn’t my sister, and it wasn’t a murder.”

Hiro opens his mouth but there’s nothing to say to help. Abigail smiles, “She was my sister in a way though, we knew each other all our lives, and planned to stay that way until we were crazy old cat ladies harassing young lovers in the park. We were even each other’s emergency contacts, which is how I found out…my point is, Mr. Hiro, is that things change,” her voice is thick and Hiro curls up in her arms as she exhales, “and we can’t fix what is meant to be broken apart and remade.”

His chest hitches one two three times, and she kisses his forehead, and she’s not Tadashi and he’s not Taylor and there’s no way to fix those hurts in the span of an afternoon. But that’s alright, because he’s going to try anyway, and he gives her a tight shaking Koji hug against the fire and the technicolor smoke and things left unsaid.

It helps; she relaxes and his own hurt goes away. They stay there for a while, then go hang out at her flat, pigging out on takeout from Tommy Kazan’s and working on his nanobot ideas and not fixing but still fixing all the shrapnel wounds in their chests.

Abigail laughs, light glinting off shiny white teeth, and Hiro exhales, promising his brother that he won’t ever stop trying.

Tadashi doesn’t answer, but Hiro doesn’t feel alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Idk where this even came from, I literally sat down and tried to write intentionally sad drabbles because guiltyhipster is evil and brought up Hiro’s first Christmas without his brother. Then I thought about all the things that Tadashi did that now Hiro must do alone, and all the things that Tadashi is gonna miss.
> 
> Like Hiro crushing on Marys Iosama, Hiro’s love interest in the BH6 comics. She’s going to have a role in a few more drabble chapters; she and Nene are a part of something interesting, if I say so myself.


	6. 24-29

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The beginning of an extended arc

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> time to get the first major arc of this drabble series off the ground!
> 
> disclaimer: I don’t own the copyrighted material within

The day after the disaster of a study date, Hiro makes up with Marys. He even gets her flowers—more specifically, he makes the flowers himself, with delicate colored glass slowly spinning in their iridescent stalks. Marys blushes and shoves his shoulder for being an idiot, then weaves the flowers into her pigtails.

Hiro decides that the only thing that can match the sweetness of her smile is a gummy bear sundae, and Nene is more than happy to set the two up. She watches them giggle in the quietest corner, pinkies brushing together and a soda with two straws, and it's adorable. They take their sweet time and she throws in a plate of strawberry mocha ice cream for free, because Hiro saved Nene's neighbor from a mugger last night and Marys held the door open for Nene in their shared biomechanics class and

they're just cute, ok? Nene might be aromantic but she appreciates the rosy Coke bottle life.

Nene's best friend Kanon Akiyama titters from her place by the register, "They're giving me cavities, please tell me they've been this way for a year."

"Newlyweds," Nene shakes her head, "Let's hope the honeymoon bubble lasts past midterms."

It does, and for every moment Hiro and Marys (and Abigail, Wasabi, Honey, Fred and Gogo for that matter) laugh in her dessert bar, Nene bites down on her tongue. She wants to ask questions, like how was their day, how is Cass Hamada holding up, where did Abigail get those cute flats, do they need a place to hide their super suits when they get stuck transitioning between classes?

But Nene keeps her silence; these people, no matter how friendly and bright and so happy next to her bubble of quiet, they are too high up to be brought down by Nene Wakahisa's drama. And it's the Golden Rule to never ask questions, only Kanon is the exception and she's special.

So she serves them, gives them free stuff, and works on her kinesiology work in the backroom. She pokes at Abigail, indulges in Fred's wild requests, lets Wasabi see how she prepares his frozen yogurt, fixes Gogo up with the good imported bubblegum brands, discusses Dizzy Kei fashion with Honey, and gives Hiro the space he needs to be just another teenager with Marys.

Kanon is there for Nene to share secrets with, and life goes on just as it always does around her dessert bar. Ask no questions, give no answers, and just live.

Marys blows powdered sugar onto Hiro's nose and Nene laughs

and it's the last time she laughs for a while.

* * *

"We've got another report of a murder," Wasabi's voice is solemn in the tense silence, "and it's the same MO, the police are directly asking for our help now."

Hiro glances at the file given to them by a shaken officer, and he recoils. Eun-seo Kjellberg is twenty years old, an aspiring ultrasound technician with white blonde hair and thick radish calves and a history of volunteering at her elementary school and three younger siblings, and she is dead. "Kaki" is carved into her chest in katakana and garish white makeup smears on her face, and the murderer left her in a gutter. "Ms. Kjellberg was alive for approximately an hour after the attack," he reads, "but her larynx was crushed in the initial ambush and prevented her for calling for help."

And that's enough reading for a lifetime, Hiro slumps in a chair and it's only Abigail's cool fingertips on the back of his neck that keeps him from hurling. It took him a while to process the deaths of his parents, and Eun-seo's youngest brother is only 5, too young to understand how much blood the human body can contain.

"I know this family," Gogo's voice is dark in its softness, "My family and I are attending the funeral. I…let's get this sicko in jail so I have some good news to give them."

Hiro chokes around a swallow and Honey asks, "Are you alright? Do you need to step out?"

Hiro needs Eun-seo Kjellberg to not be dead and go home to her family and tell her siblings that she loves them, because no one should ever be murdered like this. He shakes his head, "I'm fine. How many other murders have there been?"

"Two," and it's the same. Mari Nasagawa was twenty three years old, in the National Guard and newly engaged to her grieving fiancé; the "Kiichigo" carved in her chest was too long and reached to her navel which caused her to bleed to death rather quickly. Sachika Miyazaki was a twenty eight year old mother of year old twins, who are now orphaned from a car accident taking their father and a "Banana" tearing apart their mother's lungs.

The same style of katakana, the same white makeup, the same dead women and Fred leaves to destroy a bunch of trash cans outside. They're alone on Fred's estate, no one will hear him or Honey's hitching breaths or the absolute horror in all of their eyes. "Why would someone do this?" Honey asks, trailing her finger along Eun-seo's graduation picture, "why would someone be so cruel?"

"I haven't seen violence like this for a long time," Abigail narrows her eyes, "the underground of this city is a travesty but this…this died out years ago."

"How so?"

"Back when I was a bot fighter," Abigail ran a tongue over her shiny white front teeth, "every now and then you'd see someone in the gutter. No katakana, mind you, but it was bad. When I stopped at sixteen there was still murders in the warehouses and by Yama's dungeons, but it declined and by three years ago it was much, much better. This…"

"Guys," Fred comes in, "I had a thought."

"Shoot."

"Ok, so it's kinda like this comic book—" and Fred leads them down a rabbit hole. Normally Hiro would be annoyed but this time his face is as serious as it ever gets and his voice doesn't have his neon rush. This time Hiro's on Abigail's lap, looking at the Adventures of Mimi Ranger: Maiko's Revenge, and Fred finishes, "—and it all leads to one conclusion, with Hatsuka's bloodline curse being an outlier."

Gogo raises an eyebrow, "Which is?"

"An organization, previously active in the danger days of Abigail's bot fighting, is rising from obscurity with a message: fear us, and fear ever leaving us." Fred points at Sachika's file, "Sachika Sato was arrested twice, six and five years ago, before she suddenly moved to Los Angosaka, married her husband, and returned with a clean slate and a new last name. She was part of this organization, but wanted out and ran out, and now that they're rising up, they had to cut off an old traitor."

Honey gasps, but Wasabi leans forward, "You're on to something. It says here that Mari Nasagawa had a stint in juvie before she joined the National Guard; her records were sealed and purged when she turned twenty, but she is a far cry from Sachika, except for the arrests."

Hiro thumbs through Eun-seo's file, and Abigail hisses when he catches, "Eun-seo was arrested every year from age eleven to fourteen. Then she started volunteering and got her life on track, and now…"

"All three women were arrested, went good, and were murdered," Gogo sums up, "Whatever this organization is, they wanted them dead." She crosses her arms, "They must've had secrets or something, if Eun-seo started off young back then, then who knows how much they could've known."

Honey stands up, "We should search for all women—women, yes? This seems very gendered—who have been arrested in this time period, especially those of Asian descent." Honey notices Abigail staring at Eun-seo's thirteen year old mugshot, a coy little smile taunting her demise, and asks, "What's wrong?"

"…I saw her," Abigail hugs Hiro, "at a bot fight, she has distinctive green eyes, right Gogo?"

"The prettiest girl in our neighborhood," Gogo nods, "you sure it's her? Why was she there?"

"The context is lost, but she was there, and it was a bad time."

Wasabi speaks up, "Then we start looking for records of people arrested in association with these bad times. And let's do a patrol tonight," their eyes are drawn to the bloody katakana spelling danger for an unknown pool of San Fransokyo women, "and stop this before anyone else gets hurt."

* * *

They don't stop the next attack in time, but Baymax is there to save twenty one year old Rohini Wallis's life. She deviates the most from the victims—she's black and Indian, skin like Wasabi's and hair even longer than Honey's—and she chokes out a thank you from her strangled throat. Gogo runs off in search of the attacker but when they regroup at the hospital, she spits, "They know the streets even better than I do, which is damn near impossible!"

Hiro flinches at the idea of bloodthirsty murderers memorizing all the nooks and crannies he can't fly into, and leans against Fred for support. Honey tries to perk up the mood by pointing out Rohini's survival; no katakana carved onto her chest, only vocal cords in need of serious off-time and a broken wrist.

Rohini is awake when they pile into her room, but when Abigail gently asks for knowledge of the organization, she pressed her lips tight enough for her lipstick to go white. I'm not saying anything, she writes, or they might kill my girlfriends.

"We can protect you," Fred argues and the filet in his suit makes him sound all the more desperate.

You can't protect all of us, her eyes fill with tears. They killed Eun-seo and Mari, they even killed Sachi and she had kids. They're killing everyone off who left before the age out, her writing grows unsteady, and there's so many of us who did.

"What age out?"

Rohini scribbles away her notes and writes in all caps, DON'T ASK ME. She then pauses, looks at Hiro, then adds beneath the harsh lines, ask anzu, she'll talk, but only if you ask first.

Then the nurse throws them out and Abigail exhales harshly, "Who the hell is Anzu?"

No one knows, and they try to encourage themselves with Rohini's survival but her silence punches through the glamour like katakana to the chest. "I am detecting increased blood pressure in all of you," Baymax says, "My diagnosis: frustration. I recommend another group activity to "blow off some steam", before you make mistakes in your investigation."

"You're right," Honey suddenly smiles, "and I know where to go."

As they leave, Gogo mutters that she's the only one who has any idea where to go from here; Hiro sticks close to Abigail against the sudden inertia.

* * *

During one of their various adventures to Nene's, Honey scored some tickets from Nene to a roller rink at the edge of the warehouse district. They were still valid for all of them, and after storing all their gear at Hiro's garage, they made their way downtown.

Nene's in line, a bright blonde streak in her mousy brown hair, and she's with Kanon who Hiro remembers for holding the door open for Marys once. They wave towards the group—it's odd seeing Nene so animated, the girl's usually…drab is a mean word, she's usually blasé—and pull them ahead of the crowd, and Kanon asks, "Ever been to a roller rink before?"

"Once," Hiro gripes, "and my older brother pushed me into a wall."

"They smell like feet," Wasabi grumbles, "with sticky benches and dirty shoes and ugh."

"Maybe," Nene concedes, but when they are pulled into a glittering dark cavern with shattered disco lights and a glowing skate rink and music that makes Hiro's feet move on their own, she smiles like Eun-seo's mugshot, "but that's half the fun."

They get their shoes, making sure to wipe down Wasabi's four times, and they spill onto the rink and woah, Hiro's head spins as people spiral to pleasantly sinister beats. Nene and Kanon are experts, they pull Gogo and Abigail into a vicious battle of inlines vs quads, and Hiro is left finding his skating legs. Baymax watches from the corner, covered in oohing grunge sweethearts, and recommends, "Find your center of balance, before carefully moving forward with your feet moving out towards the sides."

"Yeah, no kidding!" Hiro face plants when some jerk in a tie-dye onesie bowls him over, but Fred and Wasabi pull him up and get their revenge. Honey laughs and makes vines of the three boys hip checking the jerk into next week, of Gogo skating with Abigail on her shoulders, of herself making figure eights with Nene, and it's loud in here, Hiro can hardly breathe.

It feels good, to have the air catch sweat and perfume before it's sucked down his lungs, to have his arms burn from running into the wall and being swung ahead of his cackling friends, to fly at the speed of shrieking wheels and be alive. He can't tell what time it is, only that his heart's skipping beats and his eyes are seeing galaxies in the shattered disco lights and blacklight crystals. The music grinds guitars and furious vocals against his ears and Hiro likes it, Marys said she's past her emo punk phase but he never started

did Eun-seo start, when she went to jail? Did Mari? Sachika? Blood stains like running mascara and Hiro never wants to forget the difference, he barrels into Abigail and inhales the scent of her shirt.

She skates him away back to Baymax, and she asks into his hair as he catches cooler air, "Having too much fun?"

"Maybe," he wipes his eyes, "or I'm just out of shape."

After a moment with Baymax who gives Hiro a lollipop to play with, Abigail grins, "Only one way to fix that."

The grunge kids laugh when Abigail and Nene pull Hiro back into the rink, and he's the one on Gogo's shoulders, the one propelling Fred into the sound barrier, the one laughing and the one alive. Tadashi isn't, the women in the gutters aren't, and that makes him want to cry but the tears are lost to the music and for once he just enjoys himself.

When he collapses on his bed, up way past his bedtime and absolutely filthy and covered in smooch marks from Honey and Kanon, he decides to ask Nene where she found that place.

* * *

He doesn't get his chance; Kanon is attacked at Nene's bar when Hiro and Marys are studying at her house, and Abigail says over the phone that both of them might not make it.

"It was at the freaking campus," she forces out, "the attackers came for Kanon and she tried to stop them but they…they were too much."

Marys's father Dr. Kenichi is a world renowned rocket scientist, only eclipsed by his daughter's rising star, but he helps process Hiro through his panic attack. Nene might not be his best friend and he hardly knows Kanon but they're nice to him, they're people he cares about, and they don't deserve to die strangled and bleeding in a gutter while the world turns a blind eye, while their Big Heroes fail yet again.

Kenichi drives Hiro and Marys, Marys refusing to let Hiro go alone because he's her boyfriend and she knows how much this will hurt. Dozens of people are there; unlike Rohini whose support base is across the bay, Nene's dessert bar attracts many loyal customers, Hiro's friends at the center. Abigail hugs Hiro and Baymax is brought in by Honey, and they wait

and wait

and wait

and are allowed to see Nene. She's still in the bed, yellow still clinging to her hair, and the nurses say that she's on her way to recovery. When Wasabi asks about Kanon, the nurses go silent, and the group is left to watch Nene breathe in privacy. Hiro comforts himself that there's no katakana carved onto her chest, only cuts from glass and bruises from brass knuckles blooming like last year's dead flowers all over her flesh.

Marys kisses Hiro's pale cheek and goes to get coffee for everyone. When the door shuts Abigail hisses, "Nene is self-supported through her bar, she can't afford these bills. And I don't know about Kanon, I don't—" she flinches away from Nene's heart monitor.

"We'll have Krei cover it," Hiro's voice is low because someone broke into Nene's home, strangled her and Kanon, and carved into Kanon's chest before dragging them across town and dumping them in the gutter. No one saw this happen, did anyone notice the blood stains through the broken windows? Do people just not care about girls with a bad past? He wonders if Kanon has a little brother or sister waiting for news and wishes he was suffocating back at the roller rink.

"Wasn't Nene a bot fighter?" Honey fusses over Nene's covers, "Some of her acquaintances are, at least that I know of. Would this explain her connection to Kanon, who might be associated with the attackers?"

"She said she was," Abigail rubs her temples, "she said she was active in the scene from age ten to age fifteen before something happened and she stopped." Abigail sees Hiro jolt and snorts, "They made them young back then, eh? But she said she wasn't as good as you, and never got Yama mad enough to smash her face in like me." She blinks and mutters, "I wonder why she's a kinesiology major then, if she likes robots enough to risk jail time for it."

"The organization must be connected to bot fights," Fred speaks up, "it explains the young age of the women when they were arrested…" He goes off to look at Nene's file and leaves everyone in silence until he gasps, "Plot twist!"

He opens the file on Nene's chest, and when Hiro sees the "Anzu" carved black and white on the picture, he bowls over Marys on his way to puke in the hall.

* * *

 

Kanon is in a coma. Nene stares at the ceiling, feeling the people around her breathe, and bites her bottom lip against all the screams. Kanon might wake up, Nene's best friend and closest thing to a partner she'll ever get might not wake up, and considering past concussions and the blood loss, Nene doesn't want to hope.

She sees Hiro with a paper covered in Rohini's scrawl, and wants to ask where he got that, but the Golden Rule chokes off her tongue like a fist around Eun-seo's throat, around Mari's and Sachika's and

and like around Kanon's

like around Nana's she took forever to die Nene was there Nene could only watch and swallow her screams and not beg for help because asking the police would only kill everyone and Nana no please no not Nana not Kanon not three more dead friends in the gutter like fifth hand kimono clogging the sewage drains around Nana's last breaths

Hiro asks, "Will you please tell us what you know?"

Nene bites hard enough to bleed, half sobs, and finally breaks the rule. "I know that you're Hiro Hamada," they jolt behind their visors and Nene doesn't laugh, "so if I told you that I was a Fujita, could you please help me?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *throws confetti* THE FUJITAS HAVE ARRIVED
> 
> And boy oh boy, did they come with a bang. I hope you all were pleasantly surprised by Nene; if you knew she was an ex-Fujita from the get-go, I admire your ability to see through my crappy foreshadowing, and if you’re upset by my bad OC building…I’m sorry, I’m too busy celebrating the beginning of the FUJITA ARC!!
> 
> Tell me what you think, if I should kill poor Kanon off, if Hiro would make an adorable emo punk science son, etc.


	7. 30-34

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm updating earlier than expected because I have free time and I like all of your faces
> 
> disclaimer: I don't own the copyrighted material within

It begins when Nene is ten years old.

By then her older sister Nana is already a Fujita, and their parents can do nothing but allow Nene to strap on her knee pads, put on cherry chapstick, and follow her neesan to the underbelly of San Fransokyo. Nana's the one who taught her to skate in the first place, Nene laughs when Nana spins her around the rink faster and faster until they collide with their fellow Fujitas.

Nene first shadows her older sister, in a bright yellow wig and geisha makeup and short shorts that their father would hate. It's fitting, for her neesan to actually be her neesan, and she makes friends with Kanon Akiyama who shadows Nana's best squad sister Sera Palakawong. Nana uses an umbrella in their raids but Nene takes to a meteor hammer, swinging her growing body round and round to kneecap and flail chest everyone in their way.

She's put into a squad with Kaori Narita and Beatrice Nguyen, and the Fujitas are a wonderful sisterhood of laughter, roller derby and absolute silence. Rule number one is to never ask questions, Nana teaches Nene at night as they stretch out tired legs and wipe off their makeup and avoid their parents' reproachful eyes. Rule number two is to only speak when spoken to, and if no one asks in the first place, then the secrets stay safe, ne?

They work for Yama—Big Yama, covered neck to toes in yakuza tattoos and war paints. He and his little brother control the bot fighting scene, and when asked by curious high school friends as to why Nene keeps skating around the law in back alleys, Nene lies and says that she's a crappy bot fighter. It's not too far from the truth: she knows the faces of many bot fighters, from Abigail Callaghan to Elio Miura, and only some of them get beaten up or taken down by the Fujitas. Nene herself never kills someone; Beatrice is eager to take the dirty missions to rise in the ranks, and Nana keeps her imouto away from Big Yama's wrath.

And Nene skates for five years, smashing in windows while her sisters cackle at terrified store owners and gangbangers and people caught on the streets. She dances with Nana, with Kanon, with Kaori and Beatrice, and when Big Yama's betrayed by his brother for their family's riches, Nene tries to run away from the fall out.

Not everyone makes it.

Nene goes clean at fifteen, returning home to find her stuff on the street and her sisters refusing to speak to a girl who dropped out before their ten year term of servitude. She cries in the ashes of her life for a good day, then sucks it up, throws away her blonde wig, and never asks for help.

She graduates high school at sixteen, intimidates SFIT to take her in their medical program as a kinesiology major—the art of human movement, Nene is a geisha of pumping thighs and twisting arms and this is her calling—and starts her own dessert bar to bring some sweetness back into her life.

Many of the Fujitas drop out when Mr. Yama lets his brother's legion of roller geishas go to waste, and Kanon and Kaori come back into her life. Kaori sticks to the back alleys while Kanon goes to SFST, and Nene makes friendly acquaintances with hard-knocking Abigail and her multitude of pretty faces.

It's a blasé life, a simple life, so of course when she keeps her silence about the heroes sitting at her counter, her old life comes swinging back to gouge her Fujita codename into her chest. She didn't even see who did it, so blindsided into the rink walls that all she can remember is Kanon gasping for bloodied breath in the gutter and her parents' disapproval.

Her sisters would laugh at all the carnage, but Nene's on her own, and it's been a while since she's asked and answered questions, it should be fun.

* * *

"All of these women were Fujitas—old guard, not quite first generation but they were in my neesan's ranks."

Nene, stuck in a wheelchair and eyes dark against the pallor of her skin, links together all the clues in their unofficial headquarters beneath Fred's house. Gogo watches Nene's fingers skate between and around the files, and can imagine how they would look wrapped around a meteor hammer's chains

and isn't it fantastic, knowing that she used to be part of the Fujitas? Gogo's bike messenger friends used to talk about them years ago, a bloodstained legend of the warehouse districts that could outrun even the fastest bikes and destroy lives with a twirl of an umbrella. Gogo imagines what Nene must've done, what Nana must've protected her from, and shifts so that she's in front of Abigail and Honey. She cracks her gum, ignores a malicious daydream of Eun-seo's guts mixing in with Abigail's in the gutter, and asks, "Where is your older sister? Is she protected?"

"They won't come after Nana," Nene shrugs, "she finished her ten year term and isn't a traitor like the rest of us. I talked to her squad mate Sera Palakawong back at the hospital, she aged out too and Sera hasn't seen or heard any danger." Nene makes a face, "At least I really hope not, Sera's pregnant and won't be able to fight back."

"Who else dropped out?" Wasabi steers the conversation back from the unhappy reality of the murders, and Gogo's thankful for that. She's also thankful that Hiro's between Baymax and Abigail because he's pale and no kid should ever have to see this, not even a Big Hero. Nene was ten when she saw things like this though, and Eun-Seo wasn't much older, and Gogo chews harder to swallow down comments she shouldn't say out loud.

"Let's see…other than Kanon and Kaori, there is Elisa Guillaume, Vainavi Ahmed, Rosa Gonzalez, Leika Yoshida, and Betty Ho," Nene trips along their names, "I'm sorry, we had codenames and since I didn't know them other than the fact that they dropped out, it's awkward." She half snorts, "Originally, only Japanese women could be Fujitas, but when Dorys Leroy fought her way into the ranks, every girl who could skate and put on makeup could join. Even Vainavi, she fully transitioned when I was fourteen."

"Dorys?" Hiro jolts a bit, but when asked what's wrong, he shakes his head, "Sorry, I was thinking about something. But we need to protect those ex-Fujitas, and figure out who is doing the killing. You said that Yama—Big Yama, not the Yama who does bot fighting now—was rotting in jail, right? Is he conducting the murders from his cell?"

"I wouldn't put that past him," Nene hisses in a voice lower than the dirt she's unearthing secrets from, and Gogo shivers. Her eyes are too dark against her skin, like kohl-ringed glass set in geisha makeup, and she's broken spines before, she's experienced and bleeding and grieving and oh so very dangerous.

Gogo clasps Nene's shoulder, feeling the delicate bone beneath hidden muscle, and grins, "Let's go pay him a visit then," and when the group makes to leave she hides her jittering fists within Abigail's palms. Abigail squeezes confidence back with her warmth, and Gogo womans up; if Nene's on their side, then the Big Heroes have a very dangerous ally against a very dangerous murderer.

If she's not on their side, then Gogo's ready to show just how protective and fast this messenger can be, even against one of San Fransokyo's precious Fujitas.

* * *

Big Yama is in Oakohama's Supermax Penitentiary, locked down deeper than the halls that Abigail has seen exactly once before. And if her palms sweat while they are escorted by armored security down to his cell, then it's because Nene's hiding in a "battery pak" Hiro's strapped to Baymax's back.

No, it's not because her father's in this prison, not at all, Hiro stop looking at her like she's about to faint she's fine.

The others have spread out to try and cover all the ex-Fujitas, and Abigail hopes that it's enough because despite Gogo's distrust and her friends' horror, Abigail knows that none of those women deserve to die for trying to get their lives together. She knows how hard it was to kick the habit, Nene does and Nene's her friend dammit, she doesn't care that she'd kept this secret because obviously nowhere in the city is safe for a roller geisha.

No, what she cares about is stopping the madness, so when they're let into the high security meeting room, Abigail blinks past afterimages of her screaming father and focus on the hulk smirking in his booth.

At Abigail's sharp insistence the guards leave because her steps promise murder and her back up is a gigantic robot; when Nene climbs out of the "battery pak" Big Yama has the gall to laugh and Abigail wants his head on a pike.

Hiro holds onto Abigail's hand, and she keeps her silence. Nene shouldn't be standing but she does, she walks over to the glass cool as a multidimensional storm cloud and asks, "Are you going to give us answers or just play around?"

Big Yama grunts, "Why should I give any more secrets away to a little traitor like you? You couldn't be trusted to keep your silence even after we dug in just how important that silence was," and he laughs at the "Anzu" healing under Nene's sweater and Hiro hisses and Abigail bites her bottom lip. Even Baymax straightens up, his voice clinical and sharp as he demands information. Big Yama spits, "All of you little whores are better off dead for the new Fujitas to rise up and reclaim this city!"

Nene doesn't react, her face is a mask smeared with kohl and blood, and Big Yama grins with rotten teeth, "Ah, your neesan taught you well. Tell me, does it burn that your fear—"

"My fear is going to take you down," Nene checks her nails, voice still flat as it ever is back at her dessert bar, and turns towards Baymax, "Really gross, but scan Big Yama for DNA not belonging to him. You can do that, right? Tadashi mentioned adding that in to you last year."

Hiro takes a moment to get it, and his horrified sputters are drowned beneath Abigail's stifled laughter and Baymax's cool "I have identified DNA belonging to a young female adult." Nene averts her eyes as Big Yama slams against the window and taunts about how her luck will run out and how pretty her screams will be once his new Fujitas do things to her that Abigail blocks Hiro's ears from. Nene is too silent against this, and Big Yama enjoys this too much, and this a monster on a level even above her father and now Abigail has seen it all

she turns towards Baymax and snaps, "Find her, we're done here!" She helps a too pale and too quiet Nene into the pak and they turn to leave. But when Hiro asks very softly about Nana and Nene's chest hitches one two three times with a big bloody katakana spelling despair, Abigail snaps.

"You are a real piece of work," her steps echo staccato death marches, "and an absolute idiot. You really think you're going to raise up a new Fujita core or whatever crap you've got buzzing around in that useless excuse for a skull?" She presses hands flat against the glass and imagines Big Yama being sucked through the portal to die cold and alone with roller geisha ghosts taunting him for five thousand eternities, and that makes her happy, makes her voice etch against Big Yama's faltering smirk.

"Here's what you don't know and what I do: your little brother is a bloated pissbaby idiot who cares more about making money in petty bot battle fights than whatever criminal grandeur you crashed and burned with. You gave him the Fujitas once, you think he's gonna nurture the next?"

"I will lead—"

"You're not gonna lead jack shit to your smelly ass once we're done with you! The last criminal who messed with the Big Heroes of San Fransokyo is on death row, and lemme promise you that we're going to stop your plans, undo all the new hooks you've got in the remaining girls, and personally escort Nene to your execution!"

Abigail lets these words meld ozone vapor in the frozen air and draw blood from every pore in Big Yama's sweaty face. Oh, if she were a Fujita, she'd make him regret ever starting up the squads, and he flinches when she slams her hands down, "You're nothing but a washed up yakuza-wannabe with a face paint fetish and blood all over your fat ugly hands!" She pulls back and shakes her head in disbelief, "What an absolute disgrace, I'd never thought I'd see the day where I'd prefer Mr. Yama and my father's company at once before anyone else's."

She turns to leave, "So sleep tight big boy, in a few days you're gonna get moved to death row and there's not a lawyer this side of the moon that will support your case, trust me on that."

Abigail enters the hall to see the gob smacked guards, a morbidly giddy Hiro and oops, her visor's microphone had synced into the prison's radio frequency, aww pickles. Gogo will never let her live this down, to say less of Hiro hearing we swear. She lets her blush pass, straights her gloves, and walks upbeat jazz away from the supermax. She sees prisoners peering at her through their cell windows, eyes wide and a few whistling like the losers they are and

and her father

and he looks so proud, like Abigail at her graduation day back when nothing hurt and everything was in the palms of her hands

and Abigail walks back to her friends, and doesn't let her tears fall until Fred calls and says, "There was an attack, and we lost another one."

* * *

In their defense, Nene says, they saved Rosa Gonzalez from the murderer, and Wasabi's weapons are too deadly to use up close. It was a close fight, and Wasabi got to confirm that there are a group of four new Fujitas in geisha makeup and with reinforced katanas to deal with; the defeat is not total. But Hiro looks down at lab technician Elisa Guillaume, at her blood sticky hair and the "Papaia" slashed through her lab coat and her broken glasses

he sees Marys there instead, and sits down with Nene while the rest of the Big Heroes scan for the mystery woman and coordinate with the police.

He turns to look at Nene, and asks, "How did she die?"

"…that's the reason why I left at fifteen," Nene's voice is soft, sad in the way that Aunt Cass's voice gets when she talks about Hiro's parents, but she doesn't recoil. "During the fallout of Big Yama's arrest, police were raiding all of the dungeons and arresting anyone who brought chaos to the streets., I…I was so scared, I ran away from my squad when we got cornered and into a rival gang, and they thought to throw me under a literal bus for the police to find instead of their scent."

She points down the street, "It was that way, near the sewage treatment plant. I lost my riding kimono, they threw it into the flow and it clogged up a drain so much that water flooded. That made them slip but I can't skate in water, and it was a bad chase until Nana found me, and I was too scared to run away with her fast enough."

Nene shrugs, "It was my fault, all of my sisters agreed at the time and I think Kaori still blames me. I…" she suddenly laughs for the first time in weeks and the sound is broken, "I really, really hate guns. You can survive a meteor hammer strike even if it gets you in the gut, but one little shot to the chest and there's nothing you can do. Not even a Fujita can shake that in just silk and knee pads."

Hiro bites his bottom lip, because gun shots aren't fair, and neither are katakana carvings and burning building support beams. Nene wipes at her eyes and apologizes for causing a scene, and he grips onto her sweater sleeve, "You're right, there's nothing you could've done." Nene opens her mouth and he cuts her off, "It took me forever to get over my guilt for Tadashi—I'm still getting over it, and Abigail's worse for some reason. But I'm telling you that the only person to blame for Nana are those gang people, and Big Yama for getting you guys into the business in the first place."

Hiro means it; no more tears over losses out of their control, or the whole city will drown in their grief. Baymax waddles over to give Nene a hug, and she whispers, "Arigatou gozaimasu."

"Douitashimashite," and she smiles at his American accent while he teases, "You sound Chinese."

"My mother is," Nene hides in Baymax's arms, "Is it that obvious?"

Hiro shrugs, "Tadashi taught me Japanese, and when he did he also talked about Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese since they all use kanji, and since a lot of our neighbors speak them. It's interesting, I guess…"

Nene nods and is pulled into Baymax's grief talk and Hiro and looks back at Elisa. Someone's put a blanket over her face but the katakana are still in the open, and he flinches…before something about the carvings catch his eye. Baymax steadies Hiro as he creeps towards the death scene, and Gogo raises her voice, "What are you doing, Hiro?"

He tilts his head, and the katakana is so gory, so horrific that they're going to have to cremate her like Eun-seo and Mari and Sachika and Nana and Tadashi, so much ash. But it's there, and even though he wants to faint back, he gets a good look at the katakana…and widens his eyes, "The Fujita doing the carving is Vietnamese."

"What?!" Nene pushes her way forward out of Baymax's arms, falling into Fred's arms. "Are you sure?!"

"Like I said, Tadashi taught me about a lot of languages," Hiro wants to touch the katakana lines to make sure but doesn't, "and people used to writing in certain scripts have certain handwriting. Gogo, you can write in Korean, right? You know what I'm talking about?"

Gogo blows a bubble, before slowly nodding, "I usually write in cursive because when I was in elementary school, my normal script was too close to hangul." She looks closer at Elisa's body and her eyes widen, "Oh crap, you're right!"

"See?" They all tilt their head with Hiro, "This person is used to writing in the Latin alphabet with those special markings, see how it's curving when it shouldn't?"

"There's only one Vietnamese Fujita not on the hit list," Nene clenches her fists, "and I know for a fact that she likes knives."

* * *

Marys is at home, a world away from this bloody drama

except that she isn't

and she whispers to the tittering Fujita from the staircase, "I told you you'll have your rockets by the end of the week, p-please leave."

"Oh no," Beatrice Nguyen skates forward and knocks over a picture of Marys with her parents, "The Big Heroes are on our trails, and we need them now."

Marys cowers as the rest of the Fujitas roll in, making cat calls at Marys's terrified father and crooning that Marys looks just like her mother, won't she skate with them and be a good little imouto?

She hides her screams into the hoodie she stole from Hiro, and Beatrice smirks, "Good girl, you're learning already."

And as they drag her down to her lab to rush order their new tech, Marys swallows down a lot of questions. She doesn't ask her father why he married a criminal only for Dorys to run out of them and leave behind her dirty legacy, she doesn't ask herself why she's allowing her technology to be used to kill all those women in the newspapers and even Nene and Kanon who never did anything to deserve it, and she doesn't ask the Big Heroes to come save her

because if she does then they'll hurt Hiro, and Marys Iosama might be a weakling with a too big brain, but she'll never let the Fujitas touch so much as a hair on Hiro Hamada's head, even if it gets them all killed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plot thickens! With a lot of info dumping and OOCness and illogical conclusions and I'm making myself sad, I'm gonna stop that
> 
> But yes, here's a gigantic mass of me shoehorning in the Fujitas, Yama's original design/role and Marys Iosama into the plot!
> 
> If you wanna see the Fujitas I've given names too, go to here:
> 
> littlemissjediprincess dot tumblr dot com/ post/ 106652509762/ here-are-the-fujitas-with-the-names-ive-put-to
> 
> In the image captions, I've put the names, and you all can finally put a face to these nebulous women lol
> 
> And poor Marys, getting caught up in this. What kind of rockets is she building? Will she have to go up against the Big Heroes to save Hiro? Will Nene get back in the rink to avenge her fallen sisters and appease her own guilt? Is Kanon gonna die? And who else will get hurt in this madness?
> 
> Idk to be honest, we'll find out together lmao All I know is that NEXT CHAPTER, there's FINALLY gonna be the big conflict between the Big Heroes and the Fujitas. Let's see who comes out on top!


	8. 35-39

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end of the Fujitas Rising arc

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow, this arc ended quickly, but hopefully the consequences stick around for more fun drabbles
> 
> disclaimer: I don't own the copyrighted material within

When the Fujitas leave and take the rush orders with them, Marys breaks down.

Her lab is destroyed, the lead Fujita/"Suika" trashed everything. Her split lip still throbs from the backhand Beatrice gave her, and her father can only apply ice and hush down her sobs and it's too much, Marys just gave a group of murderers tech capable of killing even more people. Maybe the Big Heroes can take them down, especially the one with the magnet skates and the one with the hoverboard, but Marys remembers all the terrible things her mother could do and the idea of the Fujitas killing Hiro and Cass Hamada and all of their friends rises up in her throat and

what has she done?

"Daddy," Marys clings to the wall, "I have to confess, they don't know what they're going up against."

Kenichi steadies her shoulders, "But you said that they would kill Hiro if you went forward. And what if," he swallows and Marys can't stand the idea of the lead Fujita carving into her father's chest, she hides her face against his heart and counts the beats. "What if they hurt you, Marys? I can't allow that."

"They're going to kill us anyway," Marys exhales and the truth is so obvious, why did she believe the lie? "You know what they did to the women who tried to leave, they d-didn't even fess up, but they died anyway!" Murderers in geisha paint and roller derby silks, Marys knows how to roller skate but she's going to burn her inlines and use the ashes for rocket fuel.

Rockets, rocket skates, Marys raises her head and bites her lip. Maybe she can still fix this, maybe she can still help after ruining everything.

She pushes her father's hands off and hobbles to her desk, scattering ripped schematics and spilled coffee cups. "Suika" destroyed all of Marys's work, deleted her backups and trashed her 3D printers in case of this exact scenario and screw her, screw all of them. Marys swears and knocks over the table, shrieking at her mother for this mess, but then she looks down and "Yes!"

She holds up the remaining blueprints and scans them into her glasses, "There's one left, I can still fix this!" Maybe the pink Big Hero with the awesome power purse can use this, or the short violet one, anyone at all who wants to race against Suika. Kenichi watches her victory shuffle and asks, "How will you contact them?"

"Should be easy enough," Marys breathes and pushes her bangs back, "heroes can't resist a damsel in distress."

One screaming Marys in the middle of the warehouse district later, and Fredzilla finds her. He reminds her of someone, Marys can't remember with the terror stuffing up her ears, and when she admits that she has vital information as a traitor, he takes her to the rest of the Big Heroes. They're with—is that Nene? Nene's there, with big wanted posters of the old Fujitas (Nene's in the middle of one, blonde wig and pink kimono and eyes so dangerous in the white makeup and Marys knows that she has to give this tech to her, Nene will make it come alive) One of the Heroes, the one in violet, his helmet is off and

Marys chokes on a laugh, "Oh my, we suck at this whole no-secrets dating thing."

And then she cries some more, because in her efforts to save Hiro from the Fujitas she put Hiro in mortal peril and that sounds about right.

* * *

Hiro looks down at Marys's work, and exhales, "It's brilliant."

Rocket powered roller-skates are a common fantasy and starting point for aspiring roboticists and troublemakers, but all those who have tried have broken their ankles. However, Marys has a solution: in the obi of the Fujita riding kimono is the main engine, propelling the user forward closer to their center of gravity while the additional boosters at their ankles are mainly used for direction and edging. Hand engines for extra propelling and braking, the whole thing hooked up to a neurotransmitter for subconscious speed control, and the whole set weighing only forty pounds.

It's beautiful, it's something Marys should be so proud of, and it's going to help the Fujitas ravage San Fransokyo. Marys wrings her hands and trembles, "I f-forgot to put in a kill switch in the transmitter in time before Suika came, I'm so sorry."

"Oh no, Marys," Hiro reaches out to hold her hand and pull her away from that ugly insecurity, "You didn't do anything wrong. Let's just get this ready for Nene and save the city, 'kay?"

She hugs him and her warmth stabilizes his core. No, she's not to blame at all, not when she was backed in a corner and threatened with his safety; she squeezes her arms before she lets go and Hiro wonders if this is what real love looks like, knowing that she was afraid enough to create this masterpiece, and brave enough to confess.

It was a mess, Fred had to keep Nene from strangling Marys when she described just how much more powerful the Fujitas will be in these. Then Marys started hyperventilating at the reality and Heathcliff had to come give everyone cool down hot chocolate and Nene and Marys had a very long talk in the bathroom before emerging the best of friends. Not even Abigail could guess what went down, but Marys said that with a lab she could recreate the tech in a night and Nene confirmed that she's ready to skate again.

That made Gogo very uneasy, but Fred and Honey were very enthusiastic for the support, and the memories of Nene on the skating rink and her reputation even wore down Wasabi's insistence on taking things slower. Gogo made the final decision with "I guess out of everyone here, you deserve the chance to smash in Suika's face the most" and that was that.

Hiro and Marys skip class to finish the tech before the Fujitas strike again, and Hiro's never worked with her like this before, not when her glasses are flashing schematics and Nene's measurements and Hiro's doing everything he can to keep up with her hands. Marys isn't smiling but she's not breaking his heart with her crying, and the determination set in her jaw makes the rockets come together even faster. The riding kimono and reinforced undersuit finish in the sewing machine and Marys's eyes widen when she sees all the patterns Hiro has added. "Wasn't that—"

"It seems fitting," Hiro runs a thumb over the apricot trees and the pastel skulls, "to give her back some of Nana and her old identity, since she lost both."

Hiro knows that's risky, that he sometimes can't bear to wear the same colors that Tadashi favored. But sometimes all he wants to do is bury himself in his brother's aesthetic, and the shades of jade and cream mix so nicely on the silk, Nene is going to be lovely and dangerous. Marys color matches her obi and Hiro gets the lightweight and heavy-damage meteor hammer from the cooling bay and Marys grins, "Really, Hiro? It looks like a disco ball."

"Inside joke," and the suit is ready for use. Hiro pauses, then pulls at the obi, "And you used the silk I made for the under suit, right? With extra padding?"

"You could probably shoot it with a machine gun and not dent the fabric, why?"

Hiro remembers too many bloody katakana, too many glassy eyes half closed under smeared white makeup and broken glasses and scattered tears. Elisa looked like Marys, Nana must've looked like Nene, and he rests his chin on Marys's shoulder, "We can't be too careful, this is going to be a bad fight."

Marys hugs him close and he inhales her cherry perfume, memorizes her heart beat, because all he can see behind his eyelids is Marys in the gutter, San Fransokyo burning into the sea with the rest of everyone Hiro loves.

* * *

Wasabi looks up when Hiro enters the room with Marys, fine-tuning his lasers to be exactly so. Perfect precision, enough to slice applies into micron slices, certainly a better job than Beatrice's shoddy katakana work. School was a waste of time since his mind kept sliding back to the upcoming fight, and the whole group ended up back at the mansion by midday to work on their tech. Fred goes to mess with Hiro's mussed up hair and they're fine, it's all going to be fine, Wasabi focuses back on what he can control.

He loses himself back to the gentle rhythm, but his concentration is broken again by Nene's quiet gasp. He likes Nene, likes her quiet even though her secret keeping is a little too extreme even for a reserved guy like himself, and he frowns when he can't tell if it's a happy gasp or a horrified one.

He turns to see Hiro and Marys presenting Nene with a Fujita kimono, one with the rocket gear, and he doesn't know why Nene's hands are hovering over the fabric, why Gogo's expression is softening at the girl Wasabi knows Gogo doesn't care much for.

Wasabi looks closely at the kimono and appreciates Hiro's handiwork. The fabric is a rich jade, with delicate branches blooming pastel apricot blossoms and…are those skulls? They are, in iridescent pinks and teals and peaches that complement the light detailing on the white obi; even the skates are coordinated, Hiro ought to get a fashion design minor at SFST. So why—

Oh, the skulls, Nana wore skulls in her wanted poster and Wasabi winces at Hiro's bold design, he hopes she doesn't have a trigger or anything. Even Hiro is unsure, and he stammers, "I-If you don't like the design, I can go whip up another one."

Nene looks up at Hiro from her seat and whispers, "I love it."

And she smiles a genuine dimple-cheek smile, pulling him into a hug. Then Marys too for good measure, and Fred and Honey pile in because they're both hug monsters, and Wasabi can't help but smile. Yep, everything's in their right place, even Abigail pulling Gogo into the circle fits (both hands, she's using both hands and Gogo's eyes are fixed on Abigail's collarbones and Wasabi needs to remind his friends of the rules they've established for a reason

even though he thinks it's pretty cute)

Wasabi's lasers flicker just like he wants them too, ready to be switched off the second a Fujita came too close for her own good. Baymax waddles up beside him and remarks, "It appears that a group hug is taking place. Would you like to participate?"

"Why not," Wasabi slots himself in nicely until Hiro shifts and the whole dynamic changes and throws Wasabi off. But he anchors himself between Baymax and Honey, his hand firmly on Nene's back, and they all fit, it's going to be alright, the Big Heroes will save San Fransokyo just as easily as they've all saved this moment.

* * *

Abigail looks down at the twisting alleyways, adrenaline rising in her throat.

This is it, they've got a lock on Beatrice, she's heading out with her Fujitas to kill Kaori Narita and it ends tonight. Marys is back at the mansion, coordinating with the police and unofficial authorities to stay the hell off the streets until further notice, and the Big Heroes are off to play.

She turns to her teammates, pressing her cheek to her hoverboard and counting to the beat of her anxiety. Wasabi gripes about the height, Fred's makes superhero poses, Hiro rests his chin on Baymax's head, Honey fiddles with her purse, Gogo winks at Abigail, and Nene's facing backwards, the strawberry blonde of her brand new wig catching the cityscape constellations.

She wonders what Nene's thinking about, what everyone's thinking about, and suddenly craves to yell at her father again because her tongue needs to be let loose and she might die today if the Fujitas' track record is anything to go by and he deserves every bit of what she has to say. Her mother rises up in her thoughts and Abigail feels for Marys, she knows what it's like to have a fast mother leave when familial love got too boring and illegal thrill rides overcame logic. She should hang out with Marys more, Hiro likes her and they could all use more people piling into the Lucky Cat Café.

Abigail slowly barrels around Baymax for the fun of it, and she gets a few high fives. It takes the edge out of the dirty air but it increases the sting in her limbs, and they're touching down just in time for Abigail's legs to lock up and for Honey to scream, "No!"

Gogo throws a disc at the Fujita dragging Kaori by her hair, and is only halfway startled when Nene flips off of Baymax and rockets forward to punch that poor Fujita into a wall and into unconsciousness. Abigail backs the two up with her flare gun, disorienting the roller geisha as Fred makes it rain fire and Hiro declares, "Hand yourselves over before anyone else gets hurt!"

Beatrice smiles at Hiro in a way that makes Abigail's skin crawl and her pilot instincts scream for flight, because then she's throwing a knife at her little brother's face and that's unacceptable. But damn, now they're scattering and Marys really outdid herself, Abigail only sees their afterglow melding with Nene's and Gogo's.

"I have Ms. Narita," Baymax helps a coughing and mildly hysterical Kaori to a recovery position, "I recommend the rest of you pursue the assailants." He then goes to check on the girl Nene may or may not have put in the hospital, and adds, "Alert me if any of those assailants need further medical attention."

Abigail sits up on her hoverboard so everyone else can fit, and she zooms off through an alleyway portal into chaos. Girlish shrieks rent the air as the Fujitas turn metal fans and bamboo umbrellas into weapons that can tear limbs apart, and Nene bleeds from a shallow cut on her cheek. Fred jumps and spins a fire tornado around them, and Wasabi asks, "You know these Fujitas?"

"Beatrice Nguyen," Nene spits the name, "Junko Degawa, Yue Mangubat, and Chiyo Yokota; I took out Ai Kurosawa, which is great because Ai's faster than me. But don't worry, the last two are new, still in high school, and look ready to bail." She wraps her chain around her fists and pulls her lips back in a not-smile, "Don't hurt the babies, none of them know Vietnamese."

Abigail grins, "Beatrice is all yours," because she knows betrayal from family and knows the urge to rip that traitor a new dimension. Besides, Junko is obscenely tall and powerful, and her meteor hammer is less rave-friendly than Nene's. Abigail takes flight so she can try and ram Junko into the wall but Junko uses her rocket skates and dammit Marys, you and Hiro are too brilliant for your own good.

The collision isn't too catastrophic, and Abigail scrunches her knees to her chest before kicking Junko in the face. "Backup is possible please!" Abigail yells as Junko rebounds and crashes her meteor hammer into Abigail's board. The board survives by Abigail drags too hard on her magnetic attraction and is unlinked and well crap. "Pilot needs her plane and a white knight!"

"Coming at you!" Gogo swings around Yue's clumsy attack and sweeps Abigail off her feet before Junko can hulk smash her into the concrete. "Woman up, Gail, and unleash the storm."

Haha, because Gail sounded like gale and this is not the time for puns. Abigail smooches Gogo's neck and gets back on her board, aiming for Junko. "Wanna dance?" Junko is a wall of angry geisha bitchface and legs that go on at least three miles, and Abigail can only imagine he dynamic she had with petite Nana. Except for the whole attacking Nene part, which Nana would have definitely not approved of if she was a neesan worth her salt

Ok, Abigail dodges the hammer and yanks on the chain, enough manic thoughts. Someone knocks down a lamppost and the dark plays tricks on Abigail's hoverboard, on Junko's kimono, and Abigail sees portal afterglows in the cold white makeup. Junko surges forward with a rocket blast and Abigail rears her board back to fire her flare gun.

Junko dodges but Yue is hit and dazed enough for Fred to pounce and take her down with Wasabi. Yue's screams are high pitched like a schoolgirl shoujo way over her head and good, maybe this is the wakeup call that four dead women weren't.

"Come on guys," Honey sounds off through the transmission, "I don't think we can wear them down if they have rockets and—ay dios mio!—watch out for Beatrice, I don't think katanas were meant to shoot electricity!"

"Your teammates are weak," Junko's voice is low and deep, an event horizon of chaos, "You will not survive the night."

"Nah," Abigail orients her board, "I've got finals coming up and flowers to put on graves, a bit too busy to die." She charges her board and Junko charges her rocket, and when Hiro yells in pain she unleashes her thrusters because why isn't he with Baymax, what just happened, Hiro no!

Junko tries to dodge but Abigail's surging through the portal and yanks back on that meteor hammer chain so Junko can kiss the rim of her board. Something snaps when Abigail rams her into the wall, hopefully just the rocket not crackling and smoking in Junko's obi, and Abigail smiles, "Stay down sweetie, there's a new legend in town."

"Oh yeah Gailstorm, bringing the pain!" Fred's crowing over the radio and Gailstorm? Gailstorm's not bad actually, Abigail likes the edge of it, but Hiro's not responding to Honey's sound offs and Hiro

"Hiro, answer us!" Abigail zooms off to find Hiro, swerving through the chaos of Fred's fire and Beatrice's electricity and Chiyo crying in a corner. Hiro's next to her, Chiyo's wig in his hands and a stab wound spelling death in his ribs and oh god no no no no

"I-It was Suika!" Chiyo cowers away from Abigail's rage, especially when Gogo and Wasabi come to back her up. "I wanted out, I've wanted out ever since Suika killed Nasagawa-san, and when I tried to leave she attacked me! But then he," she points at Hiro breathing shallow and bloody, "He came out of nowhere and stopped her. And then he took my wig with the transmitter thing to turn off my rocket and Suika…"

"BAYMAX!"

Baymax rockets out of the foggy sky and Gogo hisses, "Keep your hands where I can see them" and Wasabi's pushing Abigail back to her board so she can find Suika Suika must be Beatrice where is she

she's electrocuting Fred and nope nope nope not Fred not Hiro not anyone else there's an urn in Beatrice Nguyen's size and Abigail's going to give Eun-seo Kjellberg's family some fantastic news.

Nene boomjams out of an alleyway to tackle Beatrice, and Nene's eyes are black and her's too much blood on her arm to be from someone else, but this gives Abigail and Wasabi time to get to Fred. He's out cold, they push him over to Hiro and Hiro baby no please wake up you can't die like this, breathing in blood in the gutter

"The patient is stable," Baymax's voice is so cold, "but requires immediate attention."

"Go," Abigail watches Chiyo beg for forgiveness at Gogo's feet and sees Nene, sees all the ex-Fujitas, sees Abigail in front of Tadashi's grave, and she can't find it in herself to hate her. Neither can Gogo, who shields Chiyo's tears in her chest armor, and Abigail turns back to Baymax, "Save him, we need a happy ending."

Baymax takes off with Hiro, Fred, Ai and Kaori, and a choked cry of pain from the Nene-Beatrice battle has Abigail jumping back on her hoverboard and piloting Wasabi into the dirty sky. They see Nene whirlwind her hammer into Beatrice's temple and ouch, Abigail hears the crash, but there's a katana sticking out of Nene's stomach where her kimono's been undone and hah, Nene was wrong, guns aren't the worst thing on the street.

Beatrice falls but rockets forward so she can wrap a hand around the katana handle and Wasabi jumps down to slam his elbow down on Beatrice's lower back. Beatrice screams and Abigail swoops down to grab Nene and wrap her scarf around the wound. Nene sits up, looks down at Beatrice squirming under Wasabi, and hisses, "I'm not done yet."

Abigail should stop her but Nene's got a sword in her gut and five dead sisters looming on her back, and that's a kind of rage only Hiro and Baymax know how to fix. Nene slowly skates back towards Beatrice, the sound snakes through the air and crescendos fear down Abigail's spine, and when she stops by Beatrice's face Wasabi says, "You don't have to do this."

Nene is silent, secret-keeper chic in the dead of night, and she nudges Beatrice's trembling chin with her toe before not-smiling, "I want to, though," and Wasabi gets up to let Beatrice scramble onto her back so he can stand next to Abigail. He's got his lasers and Abigail's got her flare gun and Gogo did say that Nene couldn't be completely trusted, just look at the blood dripping from her meteor hammer

Nene kicks aside Beatrice's other katana, steps on her metal fan, and kneels down so she can kiss Beatrice's cheek, "But I'm not going to, because neesan said to never kill family, and I don't ask questions."

Then she slams her fist into Beatrice's nose to bounce her head off the concrete and writes "Suika" with a bloodied finger on Beatrice's obi. "We did it," Nene coughs, "hopefully I get to live to not tell anyone about it.

And she goes down and Wasabi carries her so Abigail can race Baymax and Gogo to the hospital and the Fujitas are gone and not coming back, is it too much to ask that no one else gets taken down with them?

* * *

It ends when Nene is eighteen.

By now she's seen people die, people come to life, and heroes battle against her sisters in the bowels of San Fransokyo. She's tasted perfume and inhaled roller rinks and felt chaos thrum from the head of a shattered disco ball to jar against her hips, and knows a thousand ways parents can disown you.

She's blasé and quiet because it hurts less that way, when the hurt is on silent beneath her breath.

But now she's being released from the hospital again on Krei's dime, a new riding kimono that's halfway Anzu and halfway her neesan is tucked away in her messenger bag, and a rocket pulses in her veins to the beat of Beatrice and Junko being carted away to jail to rot with Big Yama for the rest of their lives; Chiyo, Yue and Ai are going to juvie for cooperating with the police, it will be rough for them but if Mari made it and Nene made it then so can they. Nene feels sorry for Junko's son and Beatrice's sisters Gigi and Carol Nguyen who now know just how evil their loved ones can be, but Nene feels more sorry for all the little brothers and sisters of all the dead ex-Fujitas, and life isn't easy

life is loud and fast and needs a dessert bar to balance out the tang of blood, and now she has this super suit and the people waiting for her outside the hospital are asking her to take the plunge and join a new family. She should school her features into a geisha mask but she's crumbling and crumbling fast, she feels like she's fifteen clinging to Nana's kimono to try and stop the blood, so very afraid.

Hiro smiles the way that only good children know how to, with the faith that Nene once had for Nana (still has, always will), and he says, "We could use you on our team, you know the streets better than anyone else and you're unstoppable on your skates."

Even Gogo wants her, grabbing her shoulder to pull her into the circle and grinning, "Almost unstoppable, anyway, but good enough for us."

Nene blinks past sudden tears and Honey clasps her hands together, "Please? You're amazing, and you're our friend!"

Friend. Kanon is Nene's best friend and her family is pulling her life support next wek. Beatrice was Nene's friend and she betrayed her for an old man's murderous ambitions. Nana was Nene's friend and she's dead too, Nene doesn't have friends, they're all gone with her sisters and Nene's alone on the side of the road again

but Abigail's her friend, Marys's her friend, all of them are her friends and they believe in her for some godawful reason, and Nene dares to ask in a cracking voice, "Why?"

Fred only laughs and hefts her onto his shoulders, and the silence is finally, completely shattered like the disco panels to her meteor hammer. They return to the mansion in a flurry of yelling and superfluous tech use and Nene's gasping in the warmth, shrieking and laughing like she's ten again.

She's eighteen though, eighteen and alive and well and in a brand new riding kimono that has heroine stitched into the sleeves. It's scary and new, but Baymax catches her when she jumps, and Marys is there to tease Fred for being a goofball and the whole group orders pizza for Nene's orientation and

and Nene's not afraid to ask for more; she's kinda liking this Big Hero thing, it should be a fun ride.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there we have it! The Fujitas are dead and gone but Nene/Anzu Fujita is a part of Big Hero 6, ready to help save her city and her sister's memory!
> 
> Marys is there as tech support, Abigail has her superhero name, the whole group is decidedly not dead (although now Hiro and Nene have some wicked scars to find excuses for), and three high school girls getting their acts together are going to take their social media fanbase to a whole new level
> 
> Yay happy ending! XD
> 
> Anyway, I'd also like to thank you all for sticking with me and my horde of bloody OCs for so long, and I wish you all a lovely New Years! Who knows what will happen next in The Jishinko Chronicles, but I hope you all will be here to see it!


	9. 40-43

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> now that the Fujitas arc is over, it’s back to slice of life drabbles for the foreseeable future, but here I focus on the fallout
> 
> disclaimer: I don’t own the copyrighted material within. Song lyrics are from “Welcome to the Black Parade” by “My Nuclear Romance”/My Chemical Romance

Baymax is not programmed to have favorites.

He has favorites anyway, one above the rest.

When Abigail contacts him screaming, he immediately leaves; he judges that leaving his patients Kaori and Ai is not too high risk, as Kaori is much calmer than before and Ai's vitals are stable. When he arrives to see one of the Fujita assailants screaming and Abigail kneeling in blood and Hiro's lips turning purple, Baymax forgets about his previous patients.

All he focuses on is Hiro, Hiro dying with a stab wound slotted between his ribs. While no major blood arteries have been punctured his lung has and is collapsing, blood filling his chest cavity and sending him into shock.

If Baymax were human, he'd be screaming like Abigail and the Fujita Gogo is subduing, but he is not, he is a healthcare companion, and Hiro is his patient. He applies pressure with one hand while his other activates the intubation device stored within his chest. When his body was redesigned into Baymax 2.5, Hiro and Abigail took care in increasing his emergency care equipment, just in case something like this were to occur.

Hiro's throat is constricted by a swelling contusion, and Baymax scans the rest of his patient. Bruises consistent with strikes by the blunt edge of a katana, a cut on his chin, a concussion that without his helmet would have been much worse, and very low blood pressure. Baymax does not panic because he cannot, and he gently but firmly guides the plastic tube down Hiro's throat.

Reassured that his functioning lung will not falter from the strain of his injuries, Baymax then focuses on the stab wound. Air leeches out and bubbles against the blood, and Baymax is hesitant to repurpose a spare tube as a chest drain. But then Hiro spasms, blood flecking at his mouth, and Baymax takes the risk.

Hiro cries out in pain and Baymax regrets causing his patient distress, especially Hiro. It is for the best though, as air steadily leaves the chest cavity through the drain and Baymax's hands apply firm pressure to the wound. Hiro needs to go to the hospital but he is not quite at the brink of death, Baymax will not allow it

he will not fail Hiro, he will not allow another one of his creators to die.

Abigail and Wasabi return with Fred, who is unconscious and suffering from electrical burns. "The patient is stable," Baymax doesn't say Hiro because Hiro is his only patient, "but requires immediate medical attention,"

"Go," and Baymax carefully holds Hiro in his arms. Perhaps it's the loss of body armor, as the Fujita had discarded it before Baymax arrived, but Hiro feels too light. Gogo helps arrange Hiro and Fred in Baymax's arms, and he dampens his thrusters to not jostle his patients. Especially not Hiro; when Baymax returns to collect Kaori and Ai, he notes that Hiro is the youngest by 3 years to Ai.

Hiro is his patient, his favorite patient, and Baymax will not allow a child to die in the streets. He rockets away towards the hospital, and takes no delight in the shrieks he draws from the night nurses. He cannot feel that kind of joy, because he is a robot, and especially because their terror is more time ticking away from Hiro's chances for survival.

His patients are rushed away, and he is joined by Honey and another unconscious Fujita. Honey is wearing the Fujita's rocket skates and twists her ankle when she crashes into Baymax, but she asserts that her pain level is only 2. Baymax concurs, as her adrenaline levels are high enough to counteract the pain, but he makes sure to stabilize and wrap the injury.

The movements are simple, methodic, and he takes his time; by the time she's treated, the others have arrived. Baymax scans the group and while Abigail, Gogo and Wasabi are relatively uninjured aside from bruises and minor whiplash, the others are not as well off. Nene and a Fujita are rushed into surgery because Nene is suffering from a very serious stab wound to the abdomen, and the Fujita has brain bleeding.

Baymax registers that Fujita as being the one to leave her DNA on Big Yama and the one reported to have caused Hiro's injuries, and he finds it in himself to be…not pleased, but certainly not concerned.

She is someone else's patient, someone else's headache—Hiro is his patient, the team and Nene are his patients, and Baymax is allowed to pick favorites.

Hours later when Hiro wakes up, Baymax has already reassured Cass that he was simply caught in a street fight with gang members. Cass was hysterical, ready to put the Fujitas in the ground, but Baymax calmed her down with the helpful lies of the team. She was mollified, Hiro's identity wasn't compromised, and Hiro draws from the sketchpad a nurse left so that he may communicate with a ventilator, "Thanks buddy."

Baymax doesn't feel the need to be thanked, but he hugs Hiro anyway.

* * *

Funeral rites vary between different cultures and economic classes, and the funeral of Eun-seo Kjellberg is a mix of Korean and Swedish, tempered by the Kjellberg's relatively small budget.

Gogo thinks it's beautiful anyway, with the wild blooms of flowers on Eun-seo's casket and the delicate pots of incense placed at every table. She's in her black hanbok as most are the women here, if they aren't in severe Lutheran dress, and while she dislikes the billowing skirts they match the unhappy beauty.

People say their condolences and gloss over the fact that Eun-seo was a former delinquent, that she died with "Kaki" in her chest and geisha smears on her face. Gogo thinks that it's a dishonor to who Eun-seo was, better or worse, and when she sees a framed picture of her on the casket, recognizes the coyness from a bloodstained mugshot.

Her parents and siblings are holding up ok, having gotten the chance to wail a week ago. But Gogo sees how teenage Min-joon is hiding his agony into his suit jacket, how pre-teen Chae-won keeps going to the bathroom, how little Hyun-woo is still laughing and going under people's tables

Gogo's heart breaks because he doesn't know, not quite yet, but one day he will and it's going to destroy him.

It's the Cho family's turn to approach the casket, put a flower down on the glossy wood (many people are putting white lillies but Gogo remembers how Eun-seo used to wear thistles in her hair and enlisted Baymax in finding the prettiest thistles in all of the bay area), bow three times old fashion style and approach the Kjellbergs. Gogo's mother is sturdy, eyes clear and chin raised, and this comforts Mrs. Kjellberg, who needs better help in hiding her grief. Tiger mothers must stick together, Gogo backs away so her parents can support each other.

She bumps into Hyun-woo, who giggles, "Your skirt is fat, Yerin!"

Gogo grins, "And your monkey suit makes you look like an old man."

"Does not!" Hyun-woo pouts and Gogo shields him from his elders' disapproval, because how dare a five year old not carry the right kind of brevity for a funeral. He will soon enough, once he realizes that his nuna isn't coming home, Gogo doesn't see why he can't be allowed to smile until then.

Especially since the one person who could have saved Eun-seo is encouraging to run out into the back lot of the funeral building and catch the dying sunlight. They are alone out here, save Chae-won who comes out two times to sneak them pieces of the reception smorgasbord, and Gogo clenches her fists in the billows of her chima. Did Hiro cry at his parents' funeral? He didn't at Tadashi's even though everyone else did

even Gogo, hiding her tears in her suit jacket

but this is a little different, despite both of the deceased being murdered before the Big Heroes could stop it. The scattered funerals of her borderline-poor Korean neighborhood come to mind and it was always the little children with bright faces, only crying when their parents did. She looks down at Hyun-woo fussing with his little tie, and finally decides to say, "I have a special message for you?"

"From who?"

Gogo looks around like she's sharing a world-shattering secret, making Hyun-woo lean in with gigantic excited eyes, and she stage whispers, "From the Big Heroes of San Fransokyo!"

He gasps, "No way!" and crawls onto her lap, begging to hear the message.

Gogo laughs, and tells him, "They say that they found the person who hurt Eun-seo and a few other ladies, and that they put her in jail forever and ever. Yup," she nods at his babbling, "they told me this directly, no one will ever hurt your family ever again."

"Really?" He tilts his head, "How do you know?"

Because Gogo will decapitate the next person who makes her fail her duties as a Big Hero. Eun-seo deserved better, Mari and Sachika and Elisa and even Chiyo, Yue and Ai deserved better. Nene and Nana deserved better that what the Fujitas were, than the criminals of San Fransokyo are, and Gogo will never let someone touch a white blond hair on this little boy's head. "I know because they promised me," she boops his nose just to make him smile, "and they never break a promise."

Gogo doesn't see Chae-won listening to them, or her getting Min-joon and their parents so they could all listen; she doesn't see their tears, only the cheer on Hyun-woo's face. Eventually the two return to the funeral thinking they've had their private moment, and when it's over and Gogo's checking over her homework in the family room, her mother comments, "I'm proud of you, Ethel."

Gogo tilts her head, "I didn't do anything."

"Perhaps," Her mother goes to bustle about in the kitchen, "but the Kjellbergs will never forget today, mark my words."

* * *

Honey clacks away at her laptop, sipping her Monster frappuchino and making sure not to nudge her drying toenails against her desk. She, Carol Nguyen and Bethrani Alatas are having a study session/Dizzy Kei meet up, and so far Bethrani's enthusiasm for pastels and thigh high socks is filling in Carol's unusually large silences.

"Betty," Honey calls over her shoulder, "can you review the new shipments for the Daisy Dell jewelry? We got a lot of orders for this upcoming spring and I don't want a shortage December's Holly Kei disaster."

"Got it," Bethrani then looks at Carol and says, "We need more coffee, get ready to recite all the applications of metal chemical embrittlement when I get back."

Honey laughs, and she and Carol sit in silence for a while. Honey wants to speak up, ask Carol how her job application to NASA and Krei Tech are going, but Carol's silence is as loud as Hiro gasping for air with bloody blue lips, as deep as the katakana in Nene's chest. Then Carol sits up from her slump, decidedly closes her laptop, and says, "Did you hear the news recently?"

"Umm, on current Asian trends or on that one plane over the Middle East that survived a lightning strike or—"

"Or my sister getting charged for being a serial killer, pending her release from the ICU?" Carol meets Honey's gaze evenly and Honey can't help but see the similarities to Beatrice. Honey has a second cousin in jail, perhaps his ex-drug dealer buddies sees Marco in Honey, but Marco never killed anyone. Carol smiles, "Gigi said that Abigail and a few of your friends are treating her rather delicately, as if she's mad that Bea got brained by the Big Heroes."

"Carol," Honey doesn't know what to say because she was there when Beatrice got her head cracked open by Nene. Granted, she was busy with little Yue, but she'd been there for Hiro, Fred and Nene's recovery, been there to see Beatrice lying comatose next to Kanon. Poor Kanon, her family pulled her life support yesterday and for the first time since opening, Nene closed her bar.

Honey was there to see all of this madness, and now she's here to see her friend despair, and she chokes out, "I'm so sorry." And she means it, she grabs Carol's hand and bites her lip when Carol turns away.

"We hadn't seen her for three years," Carol shudders, then bites on her first, "My little sister, a murderer. Did you see what she'd done to those women? She…we knew that she was a Fujita, we didn't know what to do and then she was gone and we'd thought she'd gone clean or died, we d-didn't know that she would turn into this!"

And Carol's close to tears, one more person grieving due to a woman's depravity, and Honey doesn't care that her toenails smudge when she pulls Carol into a hug. "It's not your fault," she combs Carol's hair back and imagines it done up like a geisha, then banishes the thought because Carol is a queen of ao dai and sweet-loli pigtails.

Carol is a friend, and Bethrani returns to find Gogo braiding ribbons and bows into Carol's hair. Bethrani knows and she doesn't care either, Honey reassures Carol of this in between taking expresso shots Vegas-style and singing loudly to the reggaeton popping up on her internet radio. Honey gets the idea to braid all of them together and giggles at their Rapunzel knots; Bethrani laughs and Carol sits up straighter in her chair and Honey redoes her toes.

It's not the most effective thing, to have to sit exactly right so that their three-source braid doesn't tug, but Honey likes it. Synergy, and good vibes, all the things that Dizzy Kei promotes for 20% off and the quiet understanding between women who have seen too much.

* * *

Hiro slurps at his peanut butter-sriracha milkshake as Nene restocks the front bar, and relishes in the quiet. The whole team is coming over at 2 to eat chocolate covered pretzels and whine over evil second midterms, but Hiro's noon lecture got canceled when Prof. Mirza eloped with a flight attendant last second. That's fine though, now Baymax can charge in the backroom and Hiro can have Nene's wicked dessert skills all to himself.

Nene doesn't talk much, even after she joined the team, and eventually Hiro asks, "So do all of the people at your rollerskate place like this kind of music, or is it a Fujita thing?"

She looks up at him, then they both listen to the dark bass thrumming beneath their feet, and Nene shrugs, "I am a woman of many tastes; if I can skate to it, then it's good enough to play here."

"Oh really?" Hiro grins, "Lemme see what you got."

Half an hour and two more milkshakes later, Hiro is astounded by the mega-library packed into Nene's tiny little teal music player. The handful of customers that came in got to listen to music ranging from AKB98 to Daft Funk to Fall Out Child, and Hiro's impressed. After a Xellirks song finishes and Hiro stops head-banging from his stool, Nene grins behind her hand, "You don't seem like the type to go stomping around in combat boots and eyeliner."

"Yeah, I never had an emo phase," Hiro stuck out his tongue, "Too busy conning bot fighters with an innocent image."

"That is unacceptable," Nene laughs for real, and she scrolls through her mp3 player, "But you're fourteen, I think now is as good a time as any to start." She pauses, "Do you want eyeliner and studs? I have the magnetic kind, since you don't have piercings."

"My aunt would kill me!" And then My Nuclear Romance plays, at first with a heart monitor and a man's clear singing and then guitars, drums, noise that makes Hiro doubletake. Nene knows all the words, helping Hiro through the theatric whiplash, and Hiro likes this album, gets a download link written on his wrist in purple Sharpie.

But then he sees Nene freeze up, and he wants to ask why before piano fills in the last song's silence. He turns to Nene and—is she tearing up?

 _"When I was a young boy,"_ Hiro listens, _"my father took me into the city/To see a marching band."_

"Nene," Hiro reaches out to a sniffling Nene, "are you—"

She hushes him, and in the empty spaces of her deserted bar, the song fills the air.

And oh god, but Hiro's breath is hitching one two three times in his lung's scar tissue and all he can smell is smoke. He's been making good on his pledge to talk to Tadashi's drawer shrine, venting his issues before they become issues and keeping Tadashi up to date on his friends' antics, and he's so much better than before

But it's hurting now, he misses Tadashi so much and he bites down on his milkshake straw to ride out the urge to cry.

And ok, the second rendition of the lyrics are so loud and scream-y that he can't help but laugh, Hiro even gets Nene to stop wiping at her eyes and try to sing along. But then the song picks up again with lyrics more pointed than a katana to the ribs and oh, that hurts, but Nene suddenly pulls him off his stool onto the bar with her and she leads him along to sing.

Hiro's crying now, his voice cracks and catches against Nene's quiet half-tone and the singer's clarity. Oh god, thank god no one's around to see this, but he can't stop crying and singing and this is a mess, screw this song, he hates it

He hates that it still hurts and soon he's going to be fifteen without his brother and that this darn anthem won't explain how four women died despite him being a Big Hero, Tadashi would've stopped Beatrice before people had to die and he had to get stabbed, bodies in the streets indeed.

The singer shouts about misery and death, and didn't Hiro want to kill Callaghan back on Akuma Island, cross the barrier into the black rage where murderous Fujitas skate and microbots allow people to burn to death?

Didn't Nene do bad things, for that matter? And her best friend Kanon died at the beginning of this week, she never got to wake up and see Nene become a hero and neither did Nene's neesan—

but she's here singing with him, her eyes are watery and her cheeks are flushed but she's singing loud and against the devil winds that keep blowing smoke and blood into their faces. And Hiro knows that Abigail would do the same, she and the rest of the team, maybe even Tadashi in a world where Hiro died and Tadashi was left to pick up the pieces

Hiro feels something click and he listens to the song and _"Defiant to the end we hear the call/To carry on_!" and oh

Hiro gets it, and when he looks at Nene he knows that she knows this pain flaming in Hiro's gut and they sing together, because they both get it.

He gets all of it.

He tugs at his shirt to catch a deeper breath and who cares if he had to half-lie to explain his stab wound, if Abigail's making people flinch when she wears a sports bra and low rise shorts when she works out, if Nene's branded as "Anzu" for all the world to see? He's still got glass scars in his arms from the explosion and Tadashi wouldn't care, and he's not going to either because he alive and he's not finished yet.

He's not a man, barely even a hero, he's just a kid who knows too much about bot fighting and funerals and different dimensions, and he doesn't care. His high school peers hated his guts, too many gangbangers know his acting on sight, and whatever—he'll paint more of his super suit black and take the streets back and carry Tadashi's memory on.

Hiro sings as loud as he dares, one arm slung around Nene and the other clutching onto his hair. It's not quite matching the singer's key and his throat still chokes around microscopic sobs, but that's ok and Hiro knows that it's ok.

It's ok because they're Big Heroes and their loved ones are dead but they're going to keep going on and make San Fransokyo a place that Tadashi and Nana and Kanon would be proud to live, be proud of them as Hiro and Nene and everyone else carries on their memories

and so the song goes.

When the team shows up later, they find Nene showing Hiro all of her old CDs, real life CDs with signatures from the artists themselves, and maybe their eyes are red and their voices are scratchy, but they look happier than this morning. Hiro even pulls Marys onto his lap and smooches her cheek, making her giggle and the adults grin at each other.

If Hiro goes home and blasts MNR to Tadashi's shrine because "I'd seriously injure someone for a picture of you looking like these guys", not even Aunt Cass gives him trouble because it's all going to be ok; even though Tadashi's dead and gone, Hiro's not going to stop marching any time soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy songfic, Batman! But seriously, that song fits Hiro and Nene so well it's not even funny; originally there were HUGE chunks of lyrics but oh yeah, we can't post songfics of copyrighted lyrics. But it's heavily implied and if you know the song you know exactly what Hiro's talking about; if you don't go listen to it and relish in my teenage angst lol


	10. 44-48

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welp, college kicked my ass, but here's another chapter
> 
> disclaimer: I don't own the copyrighted material within. Song lyrics are from "Immortals" by "Fall Out Child"/Fall Out Boy

Fred is not the smartest person around, he knows that. He enjoys it really, how he can count on his friends to be science genius heroes while he can kick back and enjoy the ride. Still though, sometimes he looks at Hiro collaborating on kick-ass inventions with Marys over smoothies, and Honey juggling chemical awesomeness with fashion awesomeness, and just

well, he's the best mascot ever, he has that.

And he also has height, which is convenient when most of his friends are rocking the Asian shortness genes. Nene in particular is rather small when she curls up over her Italian homework, and when he passes by he can see all of her angry scribbles from a mile away. Hmm, vision goggles that can focus from across the city, how cool would that be to catch a football game near the docks while you're sitting comfy in the manor—

Nene looks ready to kill someone and Fred leans in, "Not to be a know-it-all, but you're kinda off."

Gogo snorts from her pile of electromagnetic papers, "Coming from the guy who can't tell "buenas noches" from "bon appetit"."

His friends all laugh but Nene asks, "Help please? I have to pass my foreign language requirement with at least a B+ to keep my grant and they wouldn't let me take Chinese or Japanese," her voice lowers to an angrier monotone than usual and ooh, that's like Asagiku Hoshimoto, the enigmatic Star Queen of the Seven Skies who takes down Dr. Hatefist in issue 17—

Back to this, and Fred reads her assignment out loud, "Tradurrele seguenti frasi in italiano. Quindi modificare le frasi in passato, presente perfetti frasi test e volitive." He hums while everyone else goes silent, "Ok, so did they give you a grammar sheet? Cool, so break down the sentences into subject-verbs, then change them into Italian, and just change stuff around for the new verb kinds."

Nene pulls Fred down into an empty chair and oww, he forgot that she's sorta buff under her nondescript sweater. But she's stressed out and it's not like he has physics homework to attend to, and even Asagiku had help from the Intergalatic League of Justice on her mission to El-Niram 33. He helps her through the homework, correcting her grammar and pronunciation. "It's sing-songy, like that chef guy in Sesame Street—"

"He was Swedish," Honey's voice is soft and kinda distracted, she must be deep in Dizzy Kei stuff.

"—so bring out your inner "Yueliang daibiao wo de xin" groove, kay?"

Nene nods very seriously, Fred wonders if she has other expressions than "slightly bored bartender" and "super awesome but super scary Fujita" but then remembers how much she laughed at the roller rink. Maybe if they empty out the pool they can skate around in there, ooh and practice their team stuff since now Gogo and Nene are speedsters and Hiro's working on new stuff for Fred's suit. Fred put in an idea for an amappo, but with more fire, cuz fire arrow spring traps are cool and his nana always talked about awesome Ainu warriors taking down giant mutant bears in epic yukar, or wait was it mutant bears or alien bears—

"Thank you," Nene smiles a bit when her homework passes his inspection, "I definitely don't want to retake this class next quarter."

"Nessun problema," Fred grins, and that grin fades when he sees everyone looking at him like he's Ultraniko and has three extra faces. "Umm, hey?"

"How many languages do you know?" Hiro asks like Fred's been keeping a dirty secret, which is weird and slightly confrontational. "Obviously English and Italian, and Ainu too?"

"I'm better at conversational Ainu since not too many things are published in pure Ainu, but ya."

Abigail blinks, "And Chinese?"

Yes, Chinese too, not to mention Japanese, Thai, German, Russian, Portuguese, Dutch, and Mongolian. "I'm working on Basque and Arabic this quarter, hopefully they're up to shape by summer so I can move onto fixing my issues with Catalan and Iberian vs Latin Spanish."

The group is silent and still, save Nene who's texting, and Wasabi finally mutters, "But "mi casa" is definitely not French."

Fred's grin is edged with a smirk, "Gotta keep my favorite science heroes on their toes." And sure, the wrestling match that Gogo throws him into proves that he's not the best at physical strength either—she's rocking her low center of gravity, she'd be perfect for a live action Yumi Youngblood remake—but everyone's looking at him like he's got a whole new super power, and Fred figures he's at least good at surprises.

* * *

Wasabi looked between Hiro and Marys, at her red-cheeked pout and his sullen side-eye, and sighed, "This is exactly what Gogo was talking about freshman year."

The Big Heroes were suited up to leave, but their coordinator was fighting with their strategist because the strategist is a stupid fourteen year old kid who can't talk about his feelings constructively and their coordinator is sensitive for her age. The manor shakes from the earthquake machine's shockwaves and Marys flinches, "This has nothing to do with you or Gogo, Wasabi."

Arg, Abigail's already down there doing damage control but she can't do this alone, and Hiro mumbles, "Might have everything to do with it, though."

"Oh, so just because I said a joke that you already laughed at with Gogo—"

"It's different coming from you, you can't just say—"

"I'm sorry, I thought you were past that—"

"I am, I just—"

"No, you said you'd tell me about these things but you don't ever talk to me like I need you to and—"

"I'm trying to, but you're not—"

"Enough!" Wasabi shakes them both until their heads are bobbling and has to contain his voice from a squeaky panic attack. "Marys, get coordinating with police and traffic control to minimize civilian casualties! Hiro, get Baymax down there and help shut down the machine!"

The manor shakes again and they both hiss, "Don't tell me what to do" and Wasabi cries inside at having two emotionally compromised teenagers on his team. Oh no, his momma always told him about dating between friends and how it always ended in third wheels and break ups at the worst time. It darn near killed her on the force when her fellow policemen got in a horrible fight in the middle of a gang raid and let Lakeisha get shanked, Wasabi remembers visiting her in the hospital and listening to her tear her teammates a new rear end.

And San Fransokyo is used to jishinko hijinks but not an actual machine manipulating the tectonic plates, who knows how many people could end up in the hospital if Marys decides to disconnect Hiro and if Hiro decides to ignore Marys and

They're saving civilians and dodging breaking glass and Marys's voice is cool on Wasabi's headset. Locate trapped people, help police and emergency workers, and punch the earthquake machine's creator in the crotch for wanting revenge on his ex-geologist girlfriend. See? Dating on teams was such a bad idea, the entire city is going to turn to rubble over one man's broken heart!

Ooooh, he was going to have to talk to Hiro and Marys, not before—Wasabi froze when he saw the rumbling sea at the docks suck in upon itself. No no no oh no everyone needed to get out and get out now

"Hiro!" Marys commands, "You and Gailstorm clear the beaches! That tsunami might be bigger than the sea walls can contain, and there's an elementary school outing by the danger zone."

Wasabi has his own duties and he can't help when he's busy slicing through broken rubble and guiding people up the hills. It's chaos, but then Nene and Gogo double team the earthquake machine's creator and break apart his lovely box of horrors. The earth stops shaking but the sea's piling higher and run, they're running, Fred's jumping the injured to safety while Abigail helps ferry people along and Honey's creating blockades from the inevitable waves and

Marys is guiding Hiro, Hiro and Baymax are still in the danger zone with all those kids. Wasabi's on a hill and can see the froth of white roll in, and they can rebuild Baymax but they can't rebuild Hiro and Marys's voice is so calm, so cool, everything they need to hear.

Abigail shrieks as the sea walls are breached and Marys yells, "Pull up now!" just as Honey unloads her purse and Fred jumps Gogo, Nene and the criminal away from the danger. Wasabi runs, chin raised and core clenched just like his momma showed him, and he spots her carrying an old man to safety, Wasabi can't be more proud to have Lakeisha Newman as a parent

There's static on the line, someone's been disconnected. Honey gasps and Gogo swears and Hiro oh no Hiro!

"He's alright," Marys smiles through the line, "He made it."

Hiro and Baymax land with all the kids crying for their parents and squealing about being saved by the Big Heroes, and the waters crash against Honey's walls but can't crest over into the crowd. Lakeisha drags the bad guy away and they all wave to the cameras and cheering people before returning to the manor.

Marys runs out to meet them halfway and hugs Hiro before he's got two feet on the ground, and they make up just like that. Honey coos and Fred teases and Gogo and Abigail give each other looks that make Wasabi very afraid

but they're alive, and their team is still intact, kind of like San Fransokyo. And maybe…well, maybe Wasabi brushes against Gogo just enough so that she and Abigail bump into each other. He has to finish up an assignment and wait for his momma to come home and rant about her day, he's had enough jishinko hijinks for a while.

And at least he doesn't have to give either of these two the Talk, oh boy, Wasabi wonders if he can push that responsibility off onto Baymax.

* * *

 

Abigail grins when Hiro raves on and on about how his nanobot project is reaching a critical stage in development, how he can taste the future. She wasn't there for his microbots but these sound cooler anyway, less chances for angry old men to come and ruin the day, and Hiro deserves his name in robotics history.

They're going to go see Nene and let Hiro ask as many questions as she can manage to answer, and Abigail hopes that Nene's kinesiology knowledge can keep up with Hiro's ambitions for perfect prostheses. But outside the bar Abigail spots a kid who is younger than Hiro and therefore very unlikely to be an SFIT student, and asks, "Looking for someone?"

He turns to her and those are Junko Degawa's eyes, Abigail can't forget their color after Junko's widened and then rolled up after Abigail rammed her through a wall. Junko's lucky though, her spine didn't actually break; Beatrice Nguyen may never wake up after what Nene did to her brain, not that it's a loss in any meaning of the word. The kid flinches just a bit, then says, "Looking for Ms. Nene, I have…a favor to ask."

"Favor?" Nene walks up behind them, nonchalant as ever, and unlocks the door. Kanon used to man the bar when Nene was at class and now everyone's going to have to deal with the new schedule, since half of Kanon's ashes are in an old perfume bottle in Nene's room, right next to Nana.

Hiro's giving the kid his "I'm assessing your threat levels and picking you apart" look and good, Abigail's glad her little brother's not ignorant. But the boy doesn't seem too dangerous, aside from his mother's eyes, and Nene isn't concerned. Then again, Nene rarely looks like anything, so Hiro whispers when they're let inside, "Wearing your undersuit?"

"Always," and they sit in a corner, watching the kid and Nene at the bar.

They're silent for a long time, enough for Hiro to fidget and Abigail to consider calling for backup, but then Nene half shrugs, "Rule number one was to not ask questions, but I'm not on my best behavior. How can I help you, Junichi?"

Junichi bowed his head and there's pain in his eyes along with resignation, before standing up straight, "I'd like to have a job here, please."

"You're 13," Nene's voice is as flat as ever but Abigail imagines it to be kind, "A bit early to be concerned about money more serious than mowing lawns and babysitting."

"I don't have any money," Junichi glances at Abigail and Hiro, flushing an unhappy red, "Okaasan is…gone, and there's no one else. Please, you're the only one who understands, and I don't really have other options."

Junichi's asking Nene, the girl who Junko helped abuse, carve "Anzu" into and kill her best friend, for a job because his criminal mother's reputation has left him with nothing else, and Abigail kinda wants to cry. Hiro frowns and plays with his hands, and Nene sighs long and soft, wind carrying across multidimensional urns.

"Do you go to school?"

"I take classes online, my last school had too many bullies." Junichi rubs his shoulder, "Something about not matching your birth certificate can still set people off in conservative districts."

"…I have an empty room," Nene checks her nails, "And Vainavi is always willing to talk, did your mother speak about her? No? Well, after work orientation I'll give you her number." Junichi lights up and Abigail can hear Nene smile, "Bring your stuff over tonight, and you know anyone else who needs a job? I imagine things are…difficult, all around, but there's no use in crying over it when we can do something about it, that's what my neesan always said."

Junichi starts crying anyway and Abigail murmurs, "Let's come back later," and escapes with Hiro outside. Hiro's still frowning, and Abigail pokes his forehead, "What's going on in that big brain of yours, Mr. Hamada?"

"They deserve better," Hiro looks down, "Nene's too kind and it sounds like Junichi's life sucks, and all of those ex-Fujitas and their families, and even…" Hiro sighs, "I have to talk to Tadashi's shrine again, get some of these bad feelings out. Want to join me?"

Abigail jolts because that's personal, like Nene and Junichi back in the bar or whatever happened with Gogo and Hyun-woo at the funeral, and it's been a while since she's been in that kind of moment. So she nods, and wraps her arm around Hiro's too thin too strong shoulders, and listens to him get back to raving about his nanobots, how they're going to fix so many problems, how maybe they can even reconstruct and support damaged tissues like hearts and legs and brains

she always knew he was going to change the world, from the very start. She bows to the shrine and listens to Hiro vent his sadness and frustration, only crying when his voice cracks too many times, and helps dry his tears. Then Hiro rubs his eyes, gripes at Tadashi for being an idiot, and goes downstairs to bug Aunt Cass for macarons, and Abigail can already see the weight lifting from his frame.

Abigail shakes her head and smiles at Tadashi's picture, "The world doesn't deserve him, not one bit."

* * *

Honey's a bit surprised at the request, then agrees since she used to be a barista back in the day, and designing uniforms is always a fun pastime. There's six new faces in Nene's bar but Honey already knows who three are and Nene's filled her in on the others, and her heart swells a bit at how much better their lives are going to be.

"Listen to Honey," Nene's voice is perfect for instructions, she'll be a great leader, "if she asks you to handstand and pedal I expect you to do so."

"Nothing so drastic," Honey takes out her measuring tape and ah, she bet Carol can find a perfect binder for Junichi and Bethrari can find thick enough thigh highs to cover the scar on Yue's leg. "But do you have requests in mind? Each of you should have your own twist on things, it'll match the place."

"Mine needs a straight collar and frog clasps," Xiaolan Chen's older sister Yingrui aged peacefully out of the Fujitas and she's just as bubbly and as coy as a roller geisha, but Honey can only see Xiaolan in qipao and rests easier because of this.

"Can I have red stripes? Red racing stripes, that sounds cool," Sonu Wallis talks a lot more than his cousin Rohini and obviously has a flail for the bold, which Honey appreciates and hopes can be contained.

"Ms. Nene said no khakis because that's a bit too formal, but can I have light colored shorts?" Ai Kurosawa recognizes Honey but doesn't ask questions and she'll be right in Nene's league, Honey wonders if she'll like yukata print.

"No lace, it's itchy," Yue Magubat does want thigh highs though, and she looks much healthier without garish white makeup on her perfect brown skin; Honey wonders if Yue knows that, and smiles at Yue's guilty gaze.

"Can you make me look less short? Okinawan girls come in sizes petite to petite," Chiyo Yokota would look good in heels, Honey startles a bit at her pink hair because of a tale Hiro once said, but then remembers that all of the Fujitas had family and hopes Nene will keep Chiyo clean for her little brother Koji.

"…umm…I don't really mind," And Junichi Degawa is going to be as tall as his mother, Honey can tell that now, and maybe he'll be a better person than her as well, only the spirits may know.

"I know exactly what to do," Honey smiles and watches Nene send them off to do chores, then asks when they're alone, "And anything you want? You're getting a discount, so feel free to go wild."

Nene shrugs, "I only dress up for fun stuff and meetings with board members…but maybe if you could add pastels," her voice isn't monotone enough to cover the slight longing, "maybe a traditional pattern? I know that pink is a bit much and I look terrible in it, but I always appreciated—"

Honey hugs Nene, "Whatever you want." Honey knows exactly what kind of apron and dress would go perfectly, the exact shades of coral and peach to bring out the technicolor in Nene's monochrome, and her friend deserves nothing less.

Nene blushes and denies this, but Honey's rather good at reading people, what they'll look good in and how they'll be good in the first place, and she's imagining all the lovely things Nene and her new helpers will become.

* * *

Marys never though it would end like this.

But here she was, backed in a corner with only Hiro at her back, facing against friends-turned-enemies, and the stakes higher than life for death. The bystanders chanted death jazz to the beat of Abigail's pounding steps and this was it, not a whimper but a bang—

"Next song is…"Immortals"!" Kaori Narita shouts from the microphone, "either solo or doubles!"

Marys can't regret Kaori and Nene reconnecting after the Big Heroes saved Kaori, since this got Kaori that much farther away from the bot fights Marys's father won't let Marys go to, and now Nene's bar is filled with people instead of Kanon's silence. But karaoke battles in front of strangers kills the Marys and Hiro's not going forward after Wasabi dropped the most soulful rendition of "What Does the Kitsune Say" ever heard in San Fransokyo.

Marys turns to Hiro and gulps, "Will you die with me?"

Hiro lifts his chin and entwines their fingers, "We die together," and that's so romantic, Marys is disappointed when she doesn't drop dead on the spot.

No, they're singling "Immortals" together, and Marys supposes that by definition they can't die until the song ends, oh well. Gogo and Abigail cheer them on, and Marys can't tell if they're drunk on laughter or on each other's presence, but she hopes they'll be sober at her funeral.

The screen loads up and the instrumental plays, and it could be worse. Nene and Abigail had to sing "Helena" and everyone pretended not to see each other cry at all the dead elephants in the room, and Fred had to survive "Take On Me" and nearly broke all the windows. But still, Marys does not sing, ok? It's not a Thing that she does and everyone's watching and listening and oh crap noooo

"They say we are what we are,/But we don't have to be," Hiro takes the lead because Marys's throat is sticky, and his voice cracks a bit but is still the lovelist thing Marys knows. She licks her lips and joins in, and aww biscuits they're not in tune at all with the song, it sounds horrible!

Honey giggles with Gigi and Carol when they try to do the "Oooooooh~"s but she encourages "Keep going, you two are amazing!" and here comes the chorus, here comes the death. But then Hiro squeezes her hand; Marys shivers a tiny bit, focuses on only that hand, and lets herself sing.

No one's laughing or shrieking in pain, and that's good, maybe not with a bang but a whimper. And at least the lyrics are worth it, Marys turns to Hiro when she sings, "Sometimes the only pay off for having any faith,/Is when it's tested again and again everyday," and watches all the emotions flicker like electrons and rocket boosters behind his eyes.

They're young and stupid and trying to be heroes, and people have died on their watch while their hearts have shattered. Hiro so so much more than Marys, Marys will never understand how Hiro can have any faith at all and not just want to lay down and die after everything that's happened. But he's here singing with her, pulling the blackout curtains down over their future, and maybe she's got some sutures to all the unhappiness that he doesn't deserve to have. Fred starts singing along with him and that leads everyone on, the song grows louder and the hourglass ticks down "We could be immortals, immortals,/Just not for long, for long,"

No, they can't, not forever because they're young and stupid and trying to save the world, and life doesn't work that way

but hey what do you know, Marys isn't quite dead yet, and the crowd isn't that scary when she's singing for all her worth.

They get a high score and are shuffled off into the cheering crowd so Kaori can call up new victims, yet Marys's heart is still beating to her song. Hiro vibrates the same way at her side, and grins, "Maybe we'll die together some other time."

"Nah, this is more fun," and he still turns bright red when she kisses him, makes her feel alive, and Marys never thought karaoke night would go like this, how wonderful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you go, five nice drabbles to tide you over until I have free time again.
> 
> Just to clarify: Chiyo is Koji (the boy Hiro saved in drabble #22)'s pink haired older sister and the Fujita that Hiro saved. The poor girl owes Hiro quite a bit, ne? But she'll be part of a support team beyond working at the dessert bar WHICH STILL NEEDS A NAME ARGH, so no worries
> 
> And yes, Kaori is definitely the bot fight ringleader from the movie, idk how many times I've said this out loud since I keep getting distracted by my WRITHING HORDE OF OCS and Hiro being a cutie. This chapter revolved around Nene without Nene's POV, which was interesting lol
> 
> Anyway, I hope you liked this


	11. 49-56

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> because it's valentine's day mofos
> 
> disclaimer: i don't own the copyrighted material within

Honey kicks in the door and squeals all the way to a table, quickly followed by Carol and Bethrani carrying huge boxes. Gigi just rolls her eyes while everyone else wonders what two non-roboticists are doing in the lab, and Honey cheers, "It's finally here!"

Hiro looks at Marys, who shrugs, and asks like he's dismantling a bomb, "What is finally here?"

"Dizzy Kei's Valentine's Day shipment!"

And then the three are pulling out pink tulle, white silk, red cotton, and so much sequins and sparkles and pure whimsy that Hiro wonders if they shot down Cupid and ransacked his body. Honey pulls Marys into the growing crowd around the table and Hiro goes to save his girlfriend; fashion was neato and all, but he was trying to work on his nanobots and needed Marys's input.

Marys sighs as she runs a hand over a rose dress—Hiro recognizes the fabric, a modification of the Big Heroes' undersuits, he's glad that Honey found an extra use for it—and Honey shrills, "Valentine's Day is this Friday, and we just have so many orders, I just HAD to show them off! Thank you so much Hiro!" And bweh, Hiro blushes hard when Honey kisses his cheeks because come on, not in front of everyone!

Then she and her friends swirl away again, cackling about the insane commissions rolling in. The lab returns to normal, although some of them have fashion and romance on the mind. Hiro sees Marys bite her lip in her "I really want something and am considering the pros and cons of obtaining it" way

and decides that as creator of the special silk, he should be able to get that dress for her in time for Friday.

Hiro imagines Marys spinning around in shades of rose, and blames his blush on the stifling room, did someone rewire the AC again?

* * *

"Ok kids," Yue shushes Chiyo and Xiaolan so they can listen to Nene's monotone, "lots of people are coming Friday either on dates, group outings or determined singles' sessions. If you have plans, tell me now."

Ai raises her hand, "I think I got asked out to here."

"Perfect, you can work around your date." Nene motions at their assortment of uniforms, "If you wanna dress up, that's fine. Just don't be complete sluts and invest in fancy non-slips."

Sonu grins, "Can we make special requests? A cute guy in my homeroom might show up and he likes salted caramel mocha, which is not on the menu anymore."

"Keep it on the down low, and that reminds me: Junichi, Yue, you two've got the steadiest hands, you're with me on fruit duty the morning of. Any issue with school?"

Junichi goes to school online and lives with Nene, so he only whines for a bit about about wanting to sleep in. Yue shakes her head, because education in juvie is a bit more lax than official high school. Ai and Chiyo shift a bit at this, embarrassed at their technical incarceration. Only by the grace of their minor ages and the Big Heroes' influence their names weren't outed to the media, which Yue is so thankful for. Junichi squeezes Yue's hand because he understands how the Fujitas are impossible to come away from unharmed, and speaks up, "Need anything else, Ms. Nene?"

Nene sighs, "Only some advice…should I wear a red yukata or cheongsam?" She quarter smirks, "An evil old professor of mine is going to come with his mistress, and I want to make him squirm before I report him for falsifying grades."

Xiaolan grins like the devil incarnate and the whole group huddles in to discuss a plan of attack. Chiyo has an account on Dizzy Kei, she can get some of the better selections for the whole group and Nene can compensate her as a work write off; there's a family of florists across the bay sweet on Sonu and grow the loveliest roses; all the kids love working at the bar and love Nene for taking them in, and this Valentine's Day is going to rock.

When Nene's lips twitch upwards as Xiaolan plans the perfect outfit, Yue feels hope for her own future, Friday and beyond.

* * *

Wasabi unsnaps his lawn chair and plants it firmly into the earth, before easing himself down and sighing down to his core. He was in the only spot of sunlight in the entire SFIT campus, possibly all of San Fransokyo, and he needed some vitamin D.

He also likes this spot because it's close to the hub, and people watching is a guilty pastime, if only to validate his hygiene concerns. The amount of unclean PDAs are enough to make his skin crawl in the most wonderful ways, and Wasabi really hopes that Baymax gives Hiro and Marys the Talk soon, if Tadashi and Marys's father hadn't already.

A half-forgotten young woman strolls by, and oh yeah, Tadashi used to date Denise Ishioka. Wasabi wonders why they fell apart (if it had anything to do with the way Tadashi used to smile at Honey), and if they'd gotten together again if Tadashi had survived the fire. Funny how disasters can bring people together—he spots Gigi with a new girlfriend and wishes them well.

Pulling out a book he's been meaning to read, Wasabi lazes through simple prose and occasionally cringing at ridiculous dating fails and germ contamination. Say what you will about Hiro and Marys's ages, but they're much better off than the idiot in red who two-timed three datemates at once. Wasabi hisses when those three datemates gang up and start whaling on their idiot, and should the Big Heroes get involved?

…nah, Wasabi likes his sun spot. The guy will be fine anyway, nothing a trip to the health center can't fix. Wasabi pulls out a thermos of green tea and sips away, spotting Abigail and Gogo debating whether or not they should intercede.

Oh boy, those two. His momma would not approve of the team incest, but Wasabi concedes that it could work. He'll be the smart one if need be, no chemical romance bonding him to a teammate; if that fails, Fred and Nene are good points of reference to work by, the Big Heroes can make inter-team dating work.

Wasabi returns to his book, existing happily a tangent away from pre-Valentine's Day drama. Then someone walks up and asks, "Hey, can I sit here? I need my sunlight fix after all of this gloomy weather."

He looks up to see dark brown eyes and androgynous features and a little bottle of hand sanitizer clipped to the other's belt. Hot damn, but Wasabi can appreciate someone with a little interest in their health, especially when they look like that. He scoots over a bit, "Not at all."

"Thanks," they laugh and plop down in the sun patch, "I'm Alex, nice to meet you."

Wasabi grins, "I'm Andre, but you can call me Wasabi if you spot me some of your hand sanitizer."

…well, Wasabi never said that he was a pillar of virtue, Fred and Nene can carry on.

* * *

"Freddy," Honey sang as she entered his room, "We've got patrolling duty by the docks, you ready?"

"Yeah," except that Fred isn't. He's sprawled on his bed, a framed picture in his hand, and Honey knows the signs of male angst well enough to know that this is bad. "Lemme just get suited up, you heading to Nene's on Friday?"

"Of course, she has the best red velvet cake pops," Honey sits down next to Fred, "But tell me what's wrong, hermano. Bad day at volunteering?"

Fred sighs heavy and heard like he never should, "Like you wouldn't believe. You know how many people are in shelters because their romantic partners are evil?" He holds up the picture—it's him and a group of smiling teens in front of the Golden Gate bridge—and frowns, "These kids aren't even our age yet but they've fallen for abusers. Like, how do we fix that? We're supposed to be heroes."

Honey bites her bottom lip, assessing how all of the teens in the picture are wearing long button downs and strategically brushed hairstyles. Fred's right, they are Heroes, but how do they even begin to fix that problem?

Then Honey gets an idea, and pulls out her cell, "You think that Hiro's busy?"

Hiro's not busy, and neither is the rest of the team. San Fransokyo's Shelter for Young Adults suddenly gets a visit from all nine of them, Marys suited up in a prototype Honey design. The teens and adults are star-struck, Baymax the most popular of all, and they spent the whole night hanging out and quietly assessing how to help.

Money helps, of course, and Abigail grins that she can get Krei to do a big budget fundraiser for all of San Fransokyo's shelters in a way that benefits everyone involved. But Honey's surprised that just letting the people in the shelter vent is helpful enough, and personally plans to visit some of the worst offenders and set their garages on fire.

Eventually they leave with a promise to return, and one of the teens yells, "Happy almost Valentine's Day!" just as their giggling friends blow kisses and flash Wasabi.

Abigail squawks and hides Hiro and Marys's eyes, while everyone else shrieks with laughter. Later on when Fred's walking Honey home, he sighs, "Thank you."

Honey smiles, "Tis the season of love, and we're heroes; we ought to be spreading some."

* * *

Nene isn't the only one with a Valentine's Day rush. Cass smiles as her café thrums with good vibes, especially from the adorable senior citizens on first dates. Hiro's being a diligent barista while Baymax has calming Baymax time in a corner with some patrons, and Cass figures that they're going to make supreme bank by Sunday. Happy Valentine's Day indeed.

Especially when Marys shows up with Abigail just to order a plate of macarons and smile at Hiro. Cass loves Marys, how she gets Hiro to act like a proper fifteen year old and gangs up on him with Abigail and Baymax to get Hiro to sleep more often. Really, she expects her to be just as good of an influence on him at home and on their little team

Cass grins at Hiro's showboating to Marys and Abigail; as if he could hide his Big Hero life from her, after she's raised him and knows all of his awkward smiles. Oh, she'll let him tell her herself, he needs privacy as a growing boy, but she plans on getting revenge for his stunt a few weeks ago with the stabbing and whatever else in the warehouse district.

For now, she watches him blush over Marys and tease Abigail for being an old maid. As if; Cass might not have raised Abigail, but she's part of the extended Hamada family, and Cass is expecting Gogo to join in any day now. Really, these kids didn't grow up with Tomeo and Mae, nobody can keep secret affections and affiliations from Cass Hamada.

No, she'll let them do this dance; it's Valentine's Day tomorrow anyway, the whole pomp and circumstance is adorable. Abigail and Marys lock heads and start planning experimental aircraft with rocket engines, in between drilling Hiro on his own projects, and Cass can't help but smile.

When Hiro shyly pulls Marys aside after the dinner rush and presents her with the beautiful rose dress he asked for an allowance advance on, Abigail sighs and Marys squeal and Cass sees Tomeo and Mae forever and ever; maybe this iteration will have a happy ending suited for a cheesy holiday.

* * *

Nene isn't sure if it's salty to wear a cute aromantic pin on her cheongsam's lapel on Valentine's Day, but all the other ace, aro and demi kids at SFIT/SFST's communal group all do the same. She's pleasantly surprised to find Fred there with a gray-ace pin and they roll up to the annual Valentine's Day Rally by SFIT's hub together.

There couples and random students team together in ridiculous games, and Nene laughs into her palm when somehow all of her fellow Heroes get pulled into the mess. Hiro and Marys arguing with each other in Lovers' Jeopardy, Wasabi and the nonbinary person in Nene's bioengineerging class dancing against Gogo and Abigail, Honey beating everyone in the selfie-off and probably getting a few numbers afterward…Kanon would've loved these dumb shenanigans, Nene claps along.

"Where did you get that pin?" Nene turns to see Elio Miura next to her, eyeing her pin with interest, "It's not as frilly as the ones off Dizzy Kei."

"One of the SFIT/SFST communal clubs is for people in the grayer end of the spectrum," Nene tilts her head, "Interested?"

"I only just found out all the names to it," Elio's voice is a pleasant kind of soft, not monotone like Nene but simply quiet. "It explains why I'm just into Valentine's Day for the chocolates."

Nene nods, "We have a 'Self Lovers Only' chocolate menu at the bar tonight, I'll tell you more about the club if you show up." Elio smiles and she follows on her urge to add, "Unless you're busy now? You're a robotics major, right? Just came out of week 5-6 midterms?"

"If there's chocolate involved, I'll make time," and Elio's smile is a pleasant kind of understated, not smug like Kanon's or flat like Nana's but just…nice. Friendly, Nene could use some more friends.

An airhorn fires off, queuing Fred in his mascot suit to step up and wow everyone with his insane sign twirling skills. Nene and Elio giggle together at the sight, and this is nice together, this is warm in her red silk and drab brown hair; Nene hopes that Junichi and Yue finished the rest of the fruit desserts, she wouldn't want to offer a potential friend anything less on Self Love Day.

* * *

Hiro whistles at the giant crowd filing into Nene's and stage whispers to Marys, "Do you think there's a VIP room?"

Marys laughs, and she runs her hands over her skirt again just because she can. She can't believe Hiro got it for her—even if Honey would've given it to him for free, the fact that he got her The Dress Of Her Dreams is still super mind blowing. She twirls around to watch the silk rise up to her knees and feels pretty, feels light, feels giddy knowing that Hiro turns into a blushing mumbling mess every time she smiles at him.

Inside Nene's divided the bar in two, and Junichi pulls them to a free corner in the dating side. There's tables and menus and wow, it's like areal café, and Junichi blushes at Marys's out loud thinking, "We're not that second-rate you know."

"Especially not with this music," Hiro points out the Panic! At the Roller Rink music playing, and sings along just because he knows that Marys loved to hear him sing. She teases him for turning into a post-emo loser, and he recalls all the MNR posters in her room; the implicit expectation that they'll go see their next tour together goes said through mutual giggling. Marys likes everything honeydew and Hiro's interested in the five alarm spice truffles being offered; he smiles lazy and wide as they place their orders, "Tonight's on me."

Marys blushes at the romance and makes him blush in return by teasing, "I'll just have to pay you back another way."

"Y-You mean?" His voice is tiny and hopeful and makes Marys burn with energy.

She nods, slowly leans in…and whispers, "24 hour Godzilla marathon on my flat screen."

Hiro cheers and Yue, Chiyo and Ai sigh dreamily in a corner. Are she and Hiro cute? Hell yes they are, and Marys smirks to herself at catching such an amazing boyfriend. And when he leads her into a heated discussion about Sugar Rush racing strategies, everything else melts away. Just his voice, his eyes, his hands illustrating—just Hiro.

Marys startles a bit when their food arrives, and Hiro chirps, "Distracted?"

"Distracted by your dumb mouth," and leans in to brush back his hair and mark that dumb mouth as hers. He shivers and she shakes, and her dress catches along his hands.

Sure, this day was just a marketing grab for cheesy cards chocolates, but that was just fine with her, now that she had someone to laugh at those cards with, someone to taste chocolate off of.

* * *

Gogo would have to be blind to miss how Abigail's eyes trail across her hips, how Abigail's words linger in collarbone hollows and how their hands never quite touch even when sharing tools because the body shock would trigger an earthquake.

Gogo is far from blind, she sees more than maybe even Wasabi in terms of detail; maybe it comes with being a bike courier, or an elder nuna in a messy Korean drama neighborhood, or just another part of Edith Yerin Cho.

And she'd have to be blind to miss so many things about her friends, like how Honey still holds a candle for her ex-crush Irene Lim, or how Wasabi totally needs to stop blaming hygiene on his attraction to Alex Valenzuela, or how once upon a time Tadashi's eyes edged along Honey's shadow.

That could've been sweet, but Gogo's the one who started the whole no dating friends rule when freshman year hormones nearly tore them apart, and Gogo isn't one to go back on her word. No, the what-could-have-beens are black and white, and right now is bright neon red on the back of Gogo's knees and neck. Abigail catches her eye over their coffees, and Gogo winks away another flirt, just to taste the shivers when Abigail's gaze flickers down to Gogo's lips.

It's stupid how easy the shivers come, because they flirt all the time as it is, Gogo's surprised that even Hiro hasn't noticed yet. A tease here, an innuendo there, and they don't necessarily need to strip down together between super hero changes but they do anyway; Gogo can read all the fine print etched into Abigail's laughter and Abigail's grins and Abigail's cheekbones, arms, scars on a toned stomach that Gogo wants to drag her tongue across and spell all the colors that Abigail makes her feel.

Oh, she could imagine what those pilot hands could do, how that back could arch like an after trail in the sky and a voice like shooting stars—

Gogo rests her cheek in her palm, counting the roses strung overhead, and this can't end well.

It can't end well, they're teammates and friends, how could it possibly end well when one false step could rip the Big Hero dynamic apart? Sure, Hiro and Marys proved that it could be done, but their love is innocent, their love doesn't involve the dangers of X-rated physical need. Gogo knows that Abigail knows this, that's why she won't reach over and trigger an earthquake handhold. Gogo knows this, that even Baymax would know this, that they should just let it go and pretend to live in black and white

and yet when Gogo turns to ask Nene for a refill, she sees Abigail's expression in the mirrored cabinets. Abigail's longing is plain in its technicolor, how her eyes soften in emerald and lavender affection, honey gold friendship stained with coral lust over Gogo's radish calves and shoulder muscles. It's not true-true love but it's close enough to hurt the same way and Gogo feels Abigail sigh in the hollows of her collarbones, in her hips and between her heartbeats. She sees Abigail want to let go but still cling to just another moment and Gogo can't begrudge her when all she can focus on is the curve of her lips, their exact shade of peach and their easy relief when Abigail says Gogo's name.

This can't end well.

Abigail's wearing a dark pink minidress to show of her perfect thighs, and in the rose light she's a siren.

This won't end well.

Abigail sways ever so slightly to the subtly seductive music pumping beneath their feet, drawing Gogo in.

This will ruin everything, but Abigail's hand is so close, and San Fransokyo is built to withstand the world falling apart under the Big Heroes' feet.

Nene makes eye contact with Gogo and pointedly taps her wrist; she sees, she knows, and when a Fujita tells you to get on with it then you better put on your skates and go. Gogo gulps down her coffee, womans up, and asks in the pause before the big one, "What are you doing after this?"

The big one hits when Abigail finally fumbles her way around an affirmative answer, when their hands brush against each other when they reach for the bill, when they knock together against the roses and joke together and breathe together on the too short walk to Abigail's flat. The buildings melt into the sea and the earth swallows up all of their mistakes and Abigail tastes like ozone, like apricot ozone; Gogo will never find a better flavor that can jolt like adrenaline through her heart.

"Aren't we supposed to not perpetuate team dating?" Abigail laughs against Gogo's lips, more delicate than a sugar spun bubble, more thrilling than a black hole portal.

"Wasabi will get over it," and Gogo dives into the new dimension set between Abigail's hips and in the reach of her arms, and it's cold flames and stark touches and colorful sound and not-quite-but-close-enough love here in the aftermath of their body shock.

Who knew that something as stupid as Valentine's Day could mean something more than a candy kiss; this won't be a bed of roses, but Gogo would have to be blind to miss how wonderfully she and Abigail fit together, and the world is just going to have to reform itself around that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DAT ABIGOGO KISS THO
> 
> So happy Valentine's Day! It's my first single one in 3 years, and I'm spending it babysitting, wishing for pizza and writing about fictional lesbians XD
> 
> Side note: in a previous chapter, Honey referred to the iconic bodycon Chinese dress as qipao, and Nene refers to it here as cheongsam. They are both correct, however Honey's using the Mandarin word she learned from online Asian fashion blogs, and Nene's using the Cantonese word that she speaks. In real life San Francisco, Cantonese is the most spoken Chinese, but where I live it's Mandarin, so it's an interesting bit of difference for me.
> 
> ANYWAY, see you all next chapter!


	12. AU Chapter #2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We interrupt your regularly schedules drabble fics for a specific story chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> because i say "what if" too many times
> 
> disclaimer: i don't own the copyrighted material within

When the car plunges into the bay, Yokai decides to make sure that they don’t resurface, and crushes them deeper into the seabed.

It’s only by Hiro’s small stature and proximity to an opening that he survives, his arm mangled to mulch by the surge of crunching metal. And Baymax’s frame withstands the attack; while his vinyl is shredded beyond repair, he manages to raise Hiro to the freezing surface.

And that’s as far as the survivor list goes.

Baymax pushes Hiro to shore and pulls himself onto the docks so that he may self-circuit in peace. Hiro screams in absolute pain and terror and alerts a bystander, which becomes 3, then 5, then police and an ambulance and news reports and Aunt Cass speeding to the hospital begging oh god no please no you can’t take all of them.

Hiro is despondent, because it’s his fault that they’re dead, if he’d just stayed home and been a good boy they would still be alive, first Tadashi now Honey Wasdabi Gogo Fred and why can’t he stop hurting the ones around him

what is wrong with him?

The police interrogates him, and Hiro can only give the truth: the man in the mask started the fire and crushed innocent college students into the bay. Baymax has a scan of the “patient” but little else to prove Hiro right, and Cass asks once the police leave, “Is this really true?”

"I would never make this up," Hiro chokes on his voice, smelling smoke and seaweed at once and wanting to throw up his lungs and die. He could never fake this, never be this cruel, and buries his shame into Cass’s shoulder. His own shoulder aches and his arm is agony, which doesn’t make sense because the doctors amputated it, and Hiro burns and drowns in cycles of madness.

He kneels at the shoreline of depression, and when sobbing parents congregate at the hospital and beg for someone to unearth their children, Hiro considers drowning himself so deeply that his body will be lost among the islets in the bay

maybe he should die so no one else has to

but Baymax pulls him back. He cannot allow Hiro to harm himself, no matter if it will improve his mental health, and Hiro turns towards a possible solution: same mission as before, but four more times the gravity. Yokai is a serial killer and Hiro can’t lose anyone else, if Cass or Baymax or Mochi dies then Hiro will surely lose the rest of himself.

So he builds. He builds himself a super arm prosthesis and Baymax a suit for flying, for shooting missiles of of the one true acid that may corrode the microbots, for being the perfect match to Yokai. Hiro imagines Tadashi pushing him, “use that big brain of yours”, and Yokai must be wearing the neurotransmitter in his mask

what if Hiro takes it for himself?

A sick sort of glee fills Hiro, elevating his mood enough for Baymax to recommend they continue in this tangent. So Hiro builds, and takes Baymax flying and knows true joy in the clouds. Flying is so much better than swimming anyway, this is true weightlessness, no crunching metal ripping away limbs

Hiro cries in a mix of pain and happiness, clutching onto his arm prosthesis and wishing for a real one to hug himself with. But Baymax’s hugs aren’t terrible, and Hiro swears to kill Yokai for this, end the torment before any more parents have to bury coffins filled with galaxies of unrealized potential.

Baymax tracks Yokai back to SFIT, where Honey and Wasabi and Gogo and Fred ought to be, and he’s going to kill Alistair Krei, how many people have to die before he’s satisfied? Yokai assembles a portal shimmering with ozone and terror above their heads, readying himself to throw Krei in.

But Hiro equips his arm with an acid missile, and fires away at Yokai’s base as Baymax fires flares and smoke. Yokai goes on the offensive and fights brutal and nasty, trying to mulch Hiro’s legs and crunch Hiro’s head and Hiro doesn’t remember if Tadashi’s friends screamed as they died, was it too quick for them?

It will not be quick for Yokai.

Tadashi’s memory encourages Hiro on despite his growing damage, and forget trying to take the transmitter, just take away all of Yokai’s stolen toys. Hiro melts his microbots because they are his to destroy if he so pleases, and that which isn’t melted is blasted to be sucked into the portal. Hiro frees Krei and yells at him to run before he gets killed like all the rest, and Krei whispers “Hamada?” before getting the memo and bailing.

Hiro corners Yokai by knocking over his portal, which lands with a brutal smash and threatens to suck them all in. Baymax scans the portal and someone’s alive in there, a young woman, did Yokai throw her in too? Unacceptable; Hiro reaches out to grab Yokai’s arm with his metal fist, and shattered Yokai’s humerus in his grip as Hiro hisses, “No one else dies today.”

Yokai screams as Hiro and Baymax blast into the portal, seeking out the woman inside. It’s beautiful here, burning and drowning and deadly here, and Hiro will not let Baymax die here, not by fire or by sea or by multidimensions.

Hiro finds the woman in a pod, and Yokai whimpers, “Abigail,” and Abigail?

Tadashi once spoke of an Abigail, his freshman year TA; Abigail Callaghan, daughter of poor Professor Callaghan, who went on a “trip” a few months ago and never came back.

Is Yokai simply determined to kill everyone connected to the Callaghans? Hiro doesn’t have time to find out, as Baymax says that the portal is destabilizing. Hiro almost wants to leave Yokai in the portal but decides to hold on just for a little while longer, so that Hiro can take off his mask and face the man who killed so many people.

They blast back out of the portal, the ozone screen swirling and distorting rapidly behind them. Yokai falls to his knees and begs, “Please, just leave us alone, this doesn’t have to go any further!”

Hiro reaches out to take Yokai’s mask and

Professor Callaghan?

Callaghan is babbling about the chain of events leading up to this moment, but Hiro doesn’t hear it. No, he hears the excuses of a man who killed five innocent college students, students who looked up to him believe in him

Tadashi trusted him as a mentor as a father

all for the sake of a woman who didn’t even die. Hiro tells Baymax to carry Abigail to safety, and when Baymax protests that Hiro is still in danger, Hiro says that he is satisfied with Baymax’s care.

Baymax focuses all his attention on his unsatisfied patient, and flies away.

Just as the portal melts down completely, Hiro takes off his helmet for Callaghan’s terrified eyes to see, puts on the mask, and asks to himself, “Is it considered dying when it’s on a new dimensional plane?”

before surging every functional microbot forward to crush Callaghan’s screams into his chest and through the portal. The portal explodes and Hiro loses his leg in the process, screaming for Tadashi and all the others in the body count.

Hiro recovers, as he cannot help but do, and tells Abigail almost everything. He keeps the exact gory details of Tadashi Honey Wasabi Gogo Fred’s deaths to himself, keeps Callaghan’s terror as he was sucked into the portal to himself, keeps his ambivalence towards her to himself.

Only Baymax knows everything, and Hiro wonders if he keeps his own disappointment to himself.

What’s done is done: Hiro is the Big Hero of San Fransokyo, Hiro is opting to go directly into Krei Tech as Krei’s little prodigy guilt project, Hiro plans to revolutionize limb prosthesis before he reaches his twenties, and Hiro may or may not be a murderer.

The truths of the matter are a burning drowning mess that can only be explained in dimensions closed to the public, and that’s just fine with him. Cass and Mochi are alive and well and happy, Baymax is Hiro’s personal companion for better or worse, Abigail becomes her own ambivalent presence in his life, and Hiro can work his way around phantom agonies as long as someone's around to hug.

It’s not what should have been, not but Hiro wants, but it’s what he has, and Tadashi would want him to keep moving, keep using that big brain of his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> morally ambiguous hiro kinda gives me strength when my mood suits him


	13. 57-59

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> because hiro needs more fren
> 
> disclaimer: I don't own the copyrighted material within

Like the kinder things in Hiro's life, it starts out simple.

He walks through campus to first period like every day this past quarter, minding his own business and his thoughts generally pure, when Hiroshi Takachiho runs into him "accidentally" and gets Hiro's shirt covered in a rancid smelling chemistry sample.

Now don't get Hiro wrong, he doesn't exactly hate-hate Hiroshi. Hiro can count the number of SFIT students younger than 17 on one hand (himself, Marys, Hiroshi, and Marys's friend Priscilla Li) so of course he knows who Hiroshi is, and it's not like he necessarily wants to drop kick Hiroshi off a skyscraper. The guy doesn't cause trouble at the Lucky Cat Café, he sticks to his own friends, and so far he hasn't directly tried to murder Hiro, so by all means Hiroshi isn't the worst guy around.

But on the other hand, Hiroshi has the habit of always knocking into Hiro, stepping on his things, making obnoxious comments during shared lectures, and most of all looking at Marys like she's just some sort of claw machine prize to be snatched. Call Hiro possessive, but no one should ever be looking at Miss Marys Iosama like that.

Hiroshi doesn't even apologize for the nasty orange liquid soaking through Hiro's shirt, and it smells like rotten eggs and spoiled milk on a hot day in a dead man's dumpster, what the hell did he just spill on Hiro?! Hiroshi runs off to whatever class and Hiro gags and it's his only shirt, oh crap—

"Woah, party foul," Junichi covers his nose with the bag of fruit he must've gotten from the farmer's market downtown. Hiro grimaces and Junichi tugs on Hiro's wrist, "Come on, if we hurry you'll make it to first period."

And that's how Hiro ends up scrubbing his chest and arms in Nene's tiny master bathroom. He's never been upstairs before or in any girl's bedroom before, and the My Nuclear Romance posters contrasting against ukiyo-e prints and anatomical diagrams in Nene's bedroom is a bit more colorful than he expects from her. The gender neutral body soap is nice though, and the water pressure is enough to blastoff whatever Hiroshi spilled on Hiro.

Junichi leads Hiro into his room, politely averting his eyes as he hands Hiro a towel. His room is pretty much the same, just with the anatomical diagrams replaced with amateur photography shots. Junichi also makes little nothing comments, like about Nene's flat ("Your obasan also operates a café from your house, yes? Here's a little different though, since this is an old schoolhouse from SFIT's earliest days, which is why there's a trap door leading to what used to be a laboratory in the basement. We mostly use it for refrigerating now.") or the artwork ("I took some of these photos myself, when okaasan and I went to the Redwood Forest. Ms. Nene collects ukiyo-e paintings when she can, although she ends up selling most of them for upgrades to the bar. But the one downstairs by the register is her favorite, since it's about Ms. Nene and Ms. Nana; did you see the patterns in the models' kimono?) and

and it's nice. Hiro doesn't get to talk to the other underage students often, since he's always with the gang, and Marys is the only person around his age that he can be dumb with. Sure, he has to get going soon, first period is about to start and Prof. Sagawa is rather strict…but Junichi's here, making a face as rowdy freshman outside play kick the can by Nene's dumpsters, and in an instant all Hiro wants is to rant about Hiroshi and his homework and why his face keeps getting oilier.

So he does.

Nene goes back to home base around the end of second period to get her applied biomechanics homework, and she finds Hiro sprawled across the counter venting with Junichi about everything that a 14year old super genius and a 13 year old aspiring restaurateur find troublesome. Hiro's relaxed, expression open and hands illustrating freely, and Junichi laughs louder than Nene's ever heard him.

Xiaolan giggles as she restocks cups, "They've been like this for hours, did you know that Prof. Sullivan once threw a bottle at one of his TAs' heads?"

Nene didn't know that, and she feels mighty stupid for not knowing just how much Hiro and Junichi needed this. So instead of telling Hiro to go to class and Junichi to go do morning chores, Nene lets them be, and half-smiles at the sound of Hiro raving "And why do they insist on messing up my hair to turn me into a Tesla coil?! Fred has short hair too!"

Later on, Hiro enlists Junichi in crafting the perfect excuse for missing first period, and it fails because he smiles a bit too much for his "I was assaulted by a bosozoku idol gang" cover.

* * *

It's a given that after befriending Junichi, Hiro would be pulled into the general gang of six at Nene's. And even though half of them are former Fujitas and the whole lot are just in high school, Hiro couldn't be happier. He looks up as Ai accuses Xiaolan for stealing the last rice cake, and just smiles at the resulting mess.

Sonu throws Xiaolan under the bus, hiding a rice cake up his sleeve. He likes super spicy food just like Hiro and isn't afraid of mega wasabi-sriracha jelly shot challenges, and he's loud in the sort of way that allows Hiro to relax outside of the spotlight for once. When Hiro was trapped by a nosy wannabe-reporter wanting "an emotional follow-up on your brother's tragic death last year", Sonu stepped in and grabbed the reporter's attention with a profanity laced rant against the San Fransokyo Youth Detention Center system for their horrible treatment of one-time offenders from poor districts. Hiro escaped, the reporter got a click baity article, and Sonu laughed the rest of the day about how his cousin Rohini would shake him like an underpaid nanny for using such language.

Xiaolan retaliates by throwing a wet towel at Ai's face, smacking the back of Sonu's head in the process. She's a bit confrontational and conceited, but she knows the dirt on everyone—and that means everyone, Hiro doesn't know how Xiaolan discovered Hiroshi's terrifying phobia of turtles but this information is worth its metaphysical weight in gummy bears—and is always down for shenanigans. When Marys really wanted a sold out Baby Twin Stars T shirt and Hiro was out of legal options, Xiaolan was his winglady down in the depths of the botfighting backalleys. And her Taiwanese blood ran thick, Hiro nearly had an aneurysm holding his laughter in when Xiaolan haggled the pants off of a shady BTS vendor with all the energy she usually channeled into her makeup applying; she smiled primly, and helped Hiro wrap up the BTS T-shirt, socks, hair accessories and fairy purse for Marys.

Ai snarls and yanks Xiaolan into a headlock, raving about avenging her rice cracker cravings. Ai might be the oldest at 17 but she's not too far away from Hiro to disconnect, and her hands-on enthusiasm for life breathes in a stress outlet for Hiro. It's easy to be obnoxious and blow off steam when Ai's egging him on; once when Hiro got nothing but Bs on chapter tests across his classes and twisted his ankle during a robbery, Hiro and Ai watched a stupid failed comedy movie at the university-run cinema and ran a commentary even worse than the movie. Sure, they got thrown out and some grad students gave them dirty looks, but Ai just laughed and threw her arm (a strong arm, a Fujita arm once but now just an Ai arm) around Hiro and Hiro laughed right along with her.

Yue shakes her head and refills the drinks of a highly concerned group of girls. She's a bit high strung like Marys, a bit insecure like Junichi, and has the prettiest shade of brown skin that Hiro's ever seen; it almost matches how pretty her kindness is. When a group of asshole tagged the Lucky Cat Café and wrote disgusting crap about Aunt Cass, Yue came over the next day with a host of magic erasers, tea for Aunt Cass, and an open ear for Hiro's upset frustration. Aunt Cass nearly adopted her on the spot, with Yue helping clean up the spray paint and playing with Mochi, and when Hiro tried to thank her she just shrugged and said there was nothing to thank. When Hiro caught her helping out in some of Fred's charities later on, he understood that to her there really was nothing to it to be kind.

Chiyo looks back and forth between Ai and Xiaolan and grins, cheering both of them on. She's the shyest around Hiro, as he saved her brother Koji from a fire and Chiyo from a Fujita's downfall, but she's also cheerfulness incarnate and never fails to make him smile. It's almost like having a tiny pink haired cheerleader around, like the time when Hiro burned out hard on his independent study paper and she risked the ire of her juvenile center to stay up with Hiro. She knew nothing about the applications of smart skin but she knew everything about motivation that doesn't condescend, and by dawn Hiro was ahead of his paper goals and rubbing his cheeks, sore from grinning so much.

And Junichi just laughs, first into his palm then with his arms around his stomach. He's not quite as quiet as Nene but he keeps Hiro's secrets to himself, and that alone makes him invaluable to Hiro. Because Hiro loves Abigail, loves Aunt Cass, trusts all of his adult friends and Marys… but there's some things you can tell your aunt or neesan or girlfriend or guys who haven't been teenagers for a while. Junichi was there to listen when Hiro had to let out his petty frustrations at Marys stressing him out, and his baseless resentment of his friends that got to know a side of Tadashi that Hiro wasn't around for, and his low-key restlessness at staying at home with his auntie like a baby when everyone else at SFIT was an independent adult, and that one horrible night when Callaghan invaded Hiro's thoughts and he wondered

he wondered why Tadashi had to die when Abigail was here

and Junichi understood. Junichi isn't a super genius like Hiro, none of Hiro's new friends are, yet they all know the struggles of pimples and hormones and growth spurts and people either treating them like useless babies or giving them too much responsibilities. And Junichi, half orphaned traumatized dysphoric Junichi, he just listened and extended his tiny safe spot to Hiro, and only asked for Lucky Cat Café macarons in return.

Abigail did the same, didn't she? Hiro hopes that Nene is to Junichi what Abigail is to Hiro, he hopes that she's all of the gang's neesan because they all deserve that unconditional comfort.

Hiro looks at his friends, then looks at Marys holding in her laughter right beside him. Whatever friendships he's made with the gang Marys has as well, Marys more than happy to make girlfriends her age around SFIT as her only friend her age is Priscilla. Hiro likes Priscilla too, since she's Marys's venting partner and every now and then flat out tells Hiro when to apologize to Marys for things he'd forgotten about; it's a godsend sometimes, when his useless teenage brain forgets how to romance. Priscilla comes back from the bathroom, and points out that Sonu has a rice cracker up his sleeve. Everyone blinks, Xiaolan trills a war cry as she and Ai fall upon a doomed Sonu, and the rest laugh right along with Junichi, until the whole bar rings with the sound of joy.

* * *

Everyone notices Hiro changing from generally genki robotics prodigy to exceptionally genki and well-adjusted robotics prodigy, and Aunt Cass in particular is happy. Her baby never got to make real friends in high school, as he graduated at the age when freshman started, and when he decided to forgo the San Fransokyo tradition of a 1-3 employment gap year before college, she worried that he wouldn't make friends his age.

Now he's goofing off with those nice kids from that underground dessert bar on SFIT campus, and Cass can't help but stick her maternal nose in deeper. When Fred comes over to pick up a host of pastries for his Ainu Studies class, Cass asks, "How is your Brothers From Other Mothers work going, Fred?"

"Going great Ms. C," Fred stuffs his face with a croissant but is enthusiastic about his charity work, "We're helping a few at-risk juvenile offenders ever since that interview with my main mackerel Sonu went viral." Sonu? Oh, one of Hiro's friends, Cass can't help but smirk at that; ah to be young again and be able to use fifteen swears in one noun description. And Cass heard Honey swearing up a storm last week over her final assignment, Hiro picks them out well, doesn't he?

"So you're helping kids around Sonu's age, and Hiro's?"

Fred nods, "A lot of kids around that age end up in juvie once or twice, but thanks to various programs we've been getting them away from gang stuff and into structured places like school or sports or sewing circles." Fred taps his backpack, "I got a few profiles here, I actually know two of the kids from SFST so I'm heading out to go see them today."

"Is that so?" And Cass isn't like Mae, she wasn't born to twist around people for her common good. And maybe convincing Fred to send those two kids over Hiro's way is irresponsible as a parent figure, since those kids are at-risk for ending up fighting in the warehouse districts.

But wasn't Hiro once at-risk too? Isn't everyone at some point? The sullen pictures of Claudio Yamaguchi and Sana Song stare up at her with the same unhappiness that her baby used to have even when Tadashi was alive, and Cass decides to stock up on more crowd pleasers like cronuts and macadamia macarons. The younger customers seem to like them, what with Hiro sneaking off handfuls between shifts on Thursday and his sweet little friend Junichi serving as an ambassador from Nene's in a "please share with us your macaron making technique and we'll share our shu cream style" exchange program.

Later that week, Hiro pulls a snarking Claudio and curious Sana into the Lucky Cat Café and Claudio melts over Mochi while Sana signs her general pleasure at the coffee selection. Hiro teases Claudio over his black skinny jeans being covered in Mochi hair, which prompts Sana to…Cass doesn't know Japanese Sign Language well enough to understand the details of what Sana signs, but she knows enough that she just insulted both Hiro and Claudio's fashion senses while exulting her own.

"Not everyone has a soul made of flannel, Sana," Claudio perches in an arm chair while Mochi purrs in his lap, taking off those ridiculous sun glasses and letting Cass see his wide brown eyes. He talks as he signs, English and Japanese, and Cass wonders what he weird exotic things he studies at SFST (hey, don't blame her for being so surrounded by roboticists that humanities majors are like aliens).

Hiro grabs a coffee pot and brings it to the immediately relaxing duo, "But we've all got souls of caffeine. To collective finals studies!"

"That better be decaf," Cass sings as she brushes by, messing up Hiro's hair and smiling when he doesn't swat her hand away.

It's mostly decaf, and eventually Hiro's adult friends—and it's strange calling Abigail and Wasabi and Honey and Gogo and Fred that, after nearly a year of them being Hiro's only friends—tumble into the café to groan about upcoming finals and cappuccino addictions. Hiro's first summer vacation, Cass catches herself tearing up like an old ninny because Hiro has plans with all of his friends all over the state and a small dark part of her once thought him sooner in jail than arcade jumping.

Marys comes in last with Priscilla to sit herself on Hiro's lap, both of them negging each other in the cheerful annoying way that teen lovers neg each other, and Sana jokes to Claudio and Fred on how she's so glad she doesn't have to hear that. Priscilla shrugs, half-defeated when she sighs, "After a while it just becomes the background noise to your miserable 3rd wheel life." They laugh which sets Marys and Hiro off and they all play-argue about nothing at all

and it's life, it's the life Cass wants for her boy, and she has to wipe a few tears away. When Nene's gang crashes through the doors, Nene with a large box of white chocolate sea salt pretzels as a treaty gift for the upcoming Lucky Cat Café-Nene's alliance, Hiro is surrounded by friends. He laughs, happy, and Cass laughs along with him.

* * *

like the kinder things in Hiro's life, it starts out simple

just like the kinder things in Hiro's life, it starts to hurt rather quickly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very ominous ending bit lmaO
> 
> But anyway, this is me getting about…three chapter arcs off the ground before I disappear into Thailand/the magical land of awesome food and no internet. Here's an OC body count:
> 
> Hiroshi Takachiho (SEE WHAT I DID HERE), 16 year old SFIT student
> 
> Sonu Wallis, 15 year old Black-Indian high schooler
> 
> Xiaolan Chen, 15 year old Taiwanese high schooler
> 
> Ai Kurosawa, 17 year old Japanese juvie convict-high schooler
> 
> Chiyo Yokota, 14 year old Okinawan juvie convict-high schooler
> 
> Yue Mangubat, 16 year old Chinese-Filipina juvie convict-high schooler
> 
> Junichi Degawa, 13 year old Japanese online high schooler
> 
> Claudio Yamaguchi, 14 year old Brazilian-Japanese SFST student
> 
> Sana Song, 15 year old Japanese-Korean SFST student
> 
> Priscilla Li, 15 year old Chinese-Indonesian SFIT student
> 
> What does the last bit mean for this OC trash baby horde? Who knows! But if you review really nicely and beg for spoilers I might give you a hint or two lol


	14. Special Chapter: Rocket Queen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We interrupt your scheduled TJC drabble chapter with a character study

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> because i’m not inspired to make an actual TJC chapter so have this songfic instead. besides, if there’s any song out there meant for nene, then it’s this one
> 
> disclaimer: I don’t own the copyrighted material within. lyrics belong to guns n roses

_if i say i don't need anyone_

_i can say these things to you_

* * *

Nene might only be six but she knows a lot more than her parents think she does. She knows that her brain doesn't work like her neesan's or anyone else in her rundown neighborhood; she knows that her father's a cheating bastard and that her mother is no better; and she knows that poor little Nene Wakahisa is unwanted.

Unwanted by everyone but her neesan, and that's alright because Nana is the only one that Nene wants either. She doesn't want her parents' dirty looks and hush-hush arguments and them locking her in her bedroom when she can't smile properly and "shames" them for her weirdness. "Shame", because Nana's never ashamed of her, her neesan lets her know late at night that Nene is loved by at least one person and that makes all the difference so don't let anyone tell you otherwise ok imouto-chan?

Nene nods, and Nene laughs the best she can only for her neesan, and she might only be six but she already dreams of the day where one day she'll be the strong one, the protector to the only one that matters.

* * *

_'cause i can turn on anyone_

_just like i've turned on you_

* * *

She's ten when the Fujitas come knocking, and she doesn't hesitate for a second. Nana was also ten when she first started, her neesan is the only one that Nene trusts—not her parents, not the funny talking doctor they make her visit, not the other girls up and down the crackling sidewalks—and that's all Nene needs to convince her.

But she's promised her mother that she'd be good, not like her degenerate of an older sister, and Nene frowns a bit because this is the first time she'll lie. Nana's Fujita sisters, Junko and Sera, they reassure her that's it's not really a lie just a modification: Nene of course will be good, and obviously not like Nana at all because Nana has a battle umbrella as a Fujita and for all Nene knows she might use a meteor hammer.

It's true, and Nene smiles as wide as her weirdo brain lets her and they pull her into the roller rinks, the road rage, the disco dangers that breathe life back into her stifled lungs. There's even girls around her age also being inducted, and they don't think she's just the quiet Wakahisa shame, they like her! Poor little Nene has friends now, and she picks out a sample blonde wig without a moment's pause.

When she comes home in her new riding kimono and cherry red lips, her mother wails and her father demands why she's done this, and Nene just turns, turns, turns her back on their anger in her well-worn skates.

* * *

_i've got a tongue like a razor_

_a sweet switchblade knife_

* * *

All Fujita inductees spend a year shadowing an oneesan, learning the ticks and trade of San Fransokyo's infamous roller geisha. They get new names, learn to fight on skates, how to turn their bodies into violent art, and they must know how to properly chew on razorblades within that year or face humiliation.

Nene is Anzu now, and she and her best friend Kanon/Kuri take to razorblades with more enthusiasm than the other inductees. It's not fun at first—Anzu chips a molar when the metal bends beyond her expectations, and there's a lingering gouge in her left cheek that tears open when she speaks too much. But the golden rule of the Fujitas is to never ask questions and to only speak when spoken to, so there's less blood in her throat than the silent giggles that come from watching her neesan Nana/Momo smash in the teeth of a rival gangbanger.

Kuri loses a premolar when the razor breaks and cuts deep into her gums, and Anzu worries that she's taking much longer than Momo ever did. Momo reassures Anzu as she grits her teeth against the blunt of the blade that she's doing just fine; Sera/Nashi took 11 months to stop splitting her tongue, and Junko/Yuzu stabbed through the roof of her mouth to her nose when she chomped down too hard.

It's dangerous bloody work, her neesan taps Anzu's lingering milk teeth, but it makes you strong. And you're so strong already, imouto-chan, just imagine what fun we'll have.

Anzu smiles, and within 4 months she can chew a blade into a perfect sliver and spit death from painted lips.

* * *

_and i can do you favors_

_but then you'll do whatever i like_

* * *

Anzu hides her face behind her trailing sleeve, because the Yama Brothers intimidate her just a tiny bit and while she might have the best moonface in the Fujitas, her lips still tremble and she doesn't want to be yelled at for mockery.

The elder Yama examines them all with eyes like the Chinese triad boys near Anzu's apartment, the ones who call on girls with high heels and fishnets all hours of the night. He lingers on Eun-seo/Kaki's insanely beautiful face for a moment, but Beatrice/Suika smirks at him and she's not yelled at for mockery, Big Yama grins and asks Yuzu, "Who do you have in mind for the new groups? Now that there's some spunk in these inductees, I want the best for my lovely girls."

Yuzu puts Anzu with Suika and Kaori/Ume, and it's a good balance: Anzu has her meteor hammer to knock the lights out of anyone far from range; Suika has metal fans to slice apart those up close, and Ume's umbrella has impressive mid-range reach. Sure, Anzu might want to be with Kuri and Rohini/Zakuro because they're her closest friends out of the newest Fujitas, and Suika scares Anzu a bit, and Anzu still clings to Momo's shadow…but Ume clasps her hands with Anzu and Suika squeals about being put with Momo's little sister, she's heard so much about Anzu!

Anzu's wanted, Anzu's loved, so when Suika asks if they can take the missions in the jankiest parts of San Fransokyo to impress Big Yama, Anzu agrees; these missions often take place with Momo's squad anyway, and she's got all of her sisters' backs as they have hers, this is her family and Anzu will protect them all with her bare hands.

* * *

_here i am_

_and you're a rocket queen_

* * *

In the Fujitas, Anzu wears her bright yellow long haired blunt bang wig; in civilian high school, she has short teal hair any scene emo queen would die for and the lavender eye liner to match. Her parents hate it, her shrink asks her if she's rebelling without a cause, and her classmates ask her if she's a bot fighter since she spends so much time in the warehouse districts with hair and eyeliner like that.

Anzu does know her way around a bot battle—the Fujitas are the Yamas' muscle, they moderate the fights and sometimes start and end their own; she was there when mouthy bot fighter Abigail Callaghan got her face smashed in by Big Yama, if that wasn't enough carnage to prove her point. And despite her mother calling her a stupid useless girl for her perpetual blankness, Anzu is smart and can slap together a passable mech given parts and enough caffeine. So she lies (modifies, twist the truth like the chains of her meteor hammer) and says that she does, but she prefers just to watch the Fujitas, aren't they just kick ass?

Her classmates agree in whispers and stencils of the Fujita's wanted posters. The roller geisha, the rocket queens of San Fransokyo, may the gods have mercy on any fool who steps against them. Not even the bike couriers want to race against them, and Nene smirks beneath her frozen lips, she cackles with overcast glee because she's Anzu Fujita, a rocket queen sitting right next to a boy so terrified of their chaos that his desk rattles from his quakes.

She's powerful, she's dangerous, she's a protector of the most notorious women to grace their nightmares, and she never wants to be anything less.

* * *

_i might be a little young_

_but honey i ain't naïve_

* * *

Anzu looks down at the twisted body, the person that Suika…killed, right? She span him around so fast in her skates that she threw him clear off the roof ten stories to the bike racks, and no human can survive having their spine broken like themes at her feet. But he had a gun to Ume's face, that rat bastard didn't deserve the bite of Suika's blades, Anzu's razor spit.

He won't be missed, not by anyone important, and it's too much hard work to care about some gang sludge when she's got homework and training and gossiping to do with people that are important. So she skates away, finishes her patrol, and presses her lips together when Momo massages her legs in their cramped bedroom. Their mother's out drinking, their father's out cheating, and oh yeah but that's the first dead body Anzu's seen in person and it's kinda freaking her out a tiny bit.

Not too much though, she reassures Momo this three times before her neesan stops asking questions and just rubs her back. Her neesan says that she's killed people before, it's really nothing special when you realize that everyone playing this game knows the risks, and Anzu's young yet, she doesn't have to one-up Suika or anything.

Anzu doesn't plan to, she's fine playing her own rules in this game. Still, he died in such an ugly way, Anzu makes a note that when she does kill someone—and she will, all Fujitas do—she'll be a bit more elegant than that.

* * *

_here i am_

_and you're a rocket queen, oh yeah_

* * *

Anzu links arms with Kuri and Suika, and they spin around the roller rink laughing. Zakuro and Ume join them, they and Vainavi/Remon and Rosa/Mango, and they are the best-best friends Anzu has in the Fujitas. The sisterhood is her family and every sister is beloved, but these are her favorites, the ones she hangs out with outside of uniform, and here they are in their schoolgirl skirts and tye dye makeup and everything a true roller rink girl needs.

Sure, some of the sisterhood has abandoned them—Sachika, formerly Banana, and Eun-seo, formerly Kaki; may the traitors trip forever down an endless staircase. And sure, Big Yama and Mr. Yama have been fighting a lot recently, one brother sending them out on missions that irritate the other. Nashi's little daughter Juncho might become a Fujita in a divided household, but Anzu's a good obasan like the rest of her sisters, and no one will come to harm as long as she's protecting them.

Not when they laugh like this, rosy cheeked and care free and flying at the speed of the DJ's best tracks, taking selfies and making memories that Anzu will cherish until they day they pry her skates from her cold dead feet. They skate together for hours, bitching about teachers and boyfriends and the big nosed psychiatrist that says Anzu has schizoid personality disorder. Schizoid doesn't even have a proper word in Japanese or Cantonese, the SAT-talking skid mark, they all swear to smash in the quack's office windows and Anzu feels loved.

Momo cheers them on from the sidelines, holding Juncho up so the toddler can wave with sticky hands, and Anzu awaits the day that she can be Juncho's oneesan, foster the next generation of roller geisha.

* * *

_i might be too much_

_but honey you're a bit obscene_

* * *

Anzu's thirteen so she knows all about the warm ache deep in her guts whenever she sees someone cute. And that tall dark handsome stranger standing by the street corner is making her ache in all sorts of needy ways, maybe he'd like to play with her like how Big Yama plays with Suika and Nashi, or how the gang ninjas play with Momo.

She's thirteen, she can play just fine, right? Right.

So she skates closer, and it's not a complete stranger; that's Elio Miura, a bot fighter who deals drugs more and more as the police crack down on the fight scene, and he's about five years older than her but that just means he ought to have experience, right? She blushes beneath her makeup, and fumbles with her sleeves, and asks if he needs an escort to somewhere better.

Elio turns to her, and there's hollows in his cheeks that weren't there a month ago, but then again the new police chief spares no mercy to those outside the law; the bruise peeking beneath his shirt collar was put there by a baton. He raises his eyebrows from her emphasis on escort, and just smiles about how she's cute, she ought to go home, her sister must be missing her.

Anzu wants to play, she pokes him in the chest and giggles razor sharp about all the fun they can have together, the ache goes deep within her core into her bones and makes her entire body sweat with nerves, with fear, with the forbidden fruit of all the things that her parents never told her about. So maybe he could show her, right?

He kisses her forehead and tells her to go home, and there's something so broken about his voice that the ache evaporates into sadness, into sympathy because that kind of brokenness doesn't come from a baton. Anzu wants to ask who hurt him so she can protect him, but she doesn't ask questions and he doesn't give answers, and she leaves him alone in the night with a note to ask Mr. Yama if he can host just a few more bot fights.

* * *

_i've seen everything imaginable_

_pass before these eyes_

* * *

Anzu doesn't need convincing to go with Momo to the next My Nuclear Romance concert, not when she's already memorized all three of their albums and is dying for the fourth. So they put on ripped jeans and lavender eyeshadow and magnetic studs, and enjoy being civilians for the day. Tall boys put them on their shoulders and Anzu gets her first kiss with a busty scene queen to the anthem of her teenage chaos. It's glorious, it's everything neon and dirty that Anzu lives for, and the pictures her neesan takes with her show off Anzu's true smile.

But then when the concert ends and the nightlife begins it's less fun, especially when the drugs and rival factions replace the band and the riot police start sniffing around. Anzu and Momo end up with MNR backstage, and the ultra-dreamy vocalist holds Anzu safe as the crowd erupts into a war and rubber bullets ricochet to Anzu's terror.

Terror, she can't help but be afraid when the girl she kissed is sprayed in the face with the kind of pepper spray that even half Chinese girls would call too hot, and she looks to Momo for guidance. Momo just raises one eyebrow and twists her lips, pure neesan disdain, and asks Anzu if she's really that scared when she's got her neesan and her own strength to keep the pretty boys safe.

Anzu nods, slowly at first then firmly, and the MNR boys laugh when she puffs up her petite chest and swears to keep them safe. The laughter trails off when the riot police switch to actual bullets in the face of a drugged out meth gang, and Anzu keeps her chin up and watches, waiting to see if she's needed. People get shot, people are probably dead in the stampede, and the police are little better; it's chaos, it's ugly chaos that Anzu really doesn't have the energy to commit to, but she's seen worse.

When the riot ends and she gets a bunch of pictures, signed merch and the vocalist's number to text cat pictures to, Anzu isn't afraid of anything that any civilian can push at her, not when she's got Fujita flower bombs nestled beneath her skin.

* * *

_i've had everything that's tangible_

_honey you'd be surprised_

* * *

Anzu loves to bake, she trained herself on Momo's knock off Easy Bake oven when she was younger than Juncho and even at that age knew the secret to the perfect brownie. So of course she bakes for the Fujitas, cake pops and mille-feuille and cream puffs, and everyone from her squad sisters to the Yamas love her desserts.

Some of the drug dealers affiliated with Big Yama want a taste, and it's easy enough to make pot brownies and speed cakes for them, it's not like Anzu's worthless mother ever uses their oven anyway. Some of the Chinese triad boys catch her in civvies with a fresh supply and demand a cut, but incidentally Momo and her squad roll up to curbstomp them, and the rice krispies are saved.

She tries them all herself at least twice, and likes what the drugs do to her expressions but dislikes how they affect her balance and SPD medications; the speed cakes are her favorite and tells Suika and Ume to keep her in moderation. So she gives out her extras to her sisters and to the kids at the roller rink just to see them loosen up, and prides herself on being a good baker.

Momo says that she ought to go to culinary school instead of SFIT; even though Anzu wants to go to SFIT to prove to her parents that she's worth more than they can ever dream, she admits that it would be good practice for her LSD puffs.

* * *

_i'm a sexual innuendo_

_in this burned out paradise_

* * *

Anzu adjusts her kimono when Big Yama leers down her front, and she's got small breasts anyway so she has no idea what he's looking at. Suika doesn't know either, admits to Anzu and Ume that he's becoming more and more erratic while Mr. Yama pulls for more power. Ume wonders if the rumors of the new police chief daring to arrest Big Yama are true, and Suika despairs of her bed being visited anytime soon.

Well, the police chief can certainly nail Big Yama on statutory rape charges, and Suika laughs when Anzu points this out. If they're ballsy enough to ask Nashi when she had Juncho, or track down retired Betsy/Orenji about her own daughter Irene, then more power to them because the sisterhood doesn't take too kindly to inquiries about their fun games.

So Anzu puts on her makeup, adds apricot blossoms to her wig, and tries to enjoy the smirks and stares that older men and women give her. Momo teaches her how to adjust her moonface to maximum bitchface defense, Suika teaches her how to properly flirt back and keep them off her true scent, and they all watch the growing confrontation between the police and San Fransokyo's underworld grow to a boil. At the very least Anzu knows what role they'll expect her to play to a gang of policemen asking for special questioning, and only a non-Fujita would be surprised as to where she can store extra razorblades.

* * *

_if you turn me on to anything_

_you better turn me on tonight_

* * *

She skates for her life, the gang members are gaining on her in their hot rod and they taunt her with threats that curdle her blood with fear. She'd rather be shoved off the roof to an ugly death than to what they're promising her, she needs her squad sisters but they're somewhere far away in the current meltdown destroying San Fransokyo's underbelly.

Anzu doesn't even have her meteor hammer, torn from her grasp when the police raided the Fujitas' dungeon and Nashi needed a weapon. The water treatment plant close to the warehouses is expansive though, she skates into the tunnels to try and lose them but she breathes too loudly, she's too afraid, they're going to mutilate her before they kill her and she needs her neesan she needs her older sister—

They get out of their car and chase her down, they pull off her kimono and throw it into the water flow. The floor floods so she can't skate and their hands grab at her half naked flesh, tear off her wig and leave fingerprints in her makeup. She screams for Momo and Momo's there, Momo's followed them, Momo impales one of the gangbangers with her umbrella and rips out the eye of another. How dare they turn on a Fujita who has never done them harm, how dare they turn on the one rule of rules: never ever hurt Anzu, never ever hurt Nene Wakahisa.

So they hurt Momo instead, they shoot her in the chest and run off so the blood doesn't cling to their clothes. It clings to Anzu as she cradles Momo close, as Nene cries into Nana's hair and begs for forgiveness. MomoNana tries to speak but she bleeds out too fast, and AnzuNene screams into the night that just gets darker and darker like the hollow despair opening in her heart.

* * *

_i see you standin'_

_standin' on your own_

* * *

Anzu (Nene?) looks at her hands, then at the broken piles of her and her neesan's belongings. Their parents must've finally kicked them out, judging from the lack of care, they must not know

how could they know it just happened AnzuNene's hands are still red caked chalky red

and it might be the middle of a normal Tuesday afternoon but she's completely alone on the street. She in her muddy kimono and bloodied wig, her caked chalky hands and garish white makeup; she stands in the wreckage of her life and she can't go home, there is no home no sisterhood no anyone but herself, and who wants to be trapped alone with poor little not-Nene Wakahisa?

She picks up a perfume bottle from the pile, and it's her neesan's favorite scent, and she doesn't know she's crying until she's on her knees with the bottle clutched to her stomach and all the ghosts lingering in the smoky sky witnessing her screams. She cries, she cries until Anzu Fujita is just a stained glass memory beneath her cracked kneepads and there's only the husk of Nana's abandoned sister holding what will be Nana's urn; there's nothing to be saved, not really, because now she's on her own and look how small her hands are.

So not-Nene rises, and chokes on those tears until she's sobbing silently, and carries what she can.

* * *

_it's such a lonely place for you_

_for you to be_

* * *

Nene (not Anzu, she can't be Anzu anymore, Nana's dead and she can't go back) graduates at sixteen, walking across the stage to no applause and going home to the homeless shelter. But that's ok, because she's going to SFIT and no one can take this new life away from her, not her acceptance letter or the half of Nana's ashes that she got to keep from her parents.

And sure, she might be homeless and orphaned and burdened with too much blood, but she has skills. Her baking skills, her technological skills, all the ways to hurt someone and skate away scot-free from her upbringing, and her moonface is a skill within itself. She'll make it, she'll bring San Fransokyo to its knees before she'll let them win and see her cry ever again.

Even when her sisters denounce her, call her a traitor who let her neesan die, she'll stay strong. Even when Yuzu keeps her away from Juncho and her squad sisters her best-best friends abandon her like trash, Nene will be alright. They don't know that Juncho is really Junichi, she worries for him…but in all selfishness she will be ok without her family.

She'll just be alone, and that's alright, she's got plenty of practice since Nana's funeral, she didn't need them anyway.

* * *

_if you need a shoulder_

_or if you need a friend_

* * *

Kanon comes back into her life when she starts at SFIT as a kinesiology major, and Nene opens her arms wide without a second thought. Kanon had also abandoned the Fujitas in the fallout of Big Yama's arrest and the warehouse raids, she went straight underground and didn't even know about Nana's death or Nene's shunning and Kanon rants about the hypocrisy of their sisters when they too abandoned the Fujita sisterhood.

So Kanon's still her sister, the only one left really since Kaori won't apologize and Nene indulges in a bit of selfish silence; Kanon is still her best friend, and Nene's life is good again. With this energy she makes new friends and friendly acquaintances at SFIT: Delly, Antoine, Taro and Megumi from the kinesiology department, the only ones to understand Nene's zeal for the art of human movement. Rebecca too, from their shared biology class who studies traditional Chinese medicine, and Isabelle who tutors Nene in history as part of her education major.

When Nene opens a dessert bar on campus to put her baking to use, her friends are her first customers and bring their friends too, and she's glad to see that Abigail has all her teeth back. More friends, more bar flies, more people to fill the blanks in Nene's life with the laughter she still misses from her Fujita years. And when the memories are too much, Kanon is there to hold her together, arms linked as Kuri and Anzu, and it's all Nene could ask for in the next two years.

* * *

_i'll be here standing_

_until the bitter end_

* * *

Nene closes her bar for the day, puts on all black, and goes to the hospital where Kanon's parents kill her. They kill her, they turn off the machine keeping her alive, and Nene holds Kanon's hand until she's certain that the only warm left in those bones come from her own. She doesn't cry, not really, but she glares at the mother and father that didn't care when Kanon ran away to become a roller geisha and only cared when the city made them pay for Kanon's life support.

She gets half of Kanon's ashes, as is her due, and puts them in Kanon's favorite perfume bottle, just like Nana. Nene even goes to the funeral, where a handful of people watch half of Kanon Akiyama go into the earth, and she stays when everyone else leaves.

Nana never got a headstone so this is new, this is too public for a Fujita, and Nene hates everything to do with how she got here. She nurtures her hate, chewing razorblades and bending them into cranes to string in Kanon's memory.

She hates Beatrice, that evil bitch who betrayed Nene and Kanon and four other sisters who didn't deserve to die like that. And she killed her halfway, Beatrice strapped to the same machine that Kanon was put in, in revenge for Kanon and Eun-seo and Mari and Sachika and the still healing carve wounds in Nene's chest that ended three years of happiness.

She hates Kaori too, for good measure, even when Kaori comes later and stands just close enough to let Nene see the remorse on her face; empty remorse, what good is it now that Kanon's dead and four other girls with her. And most of all, Nene hates herself for letting another loved one die in her arms, for being so useless after Beatrice's attack that she could only listen to Kanon choke to death on her own blood clots. So when her soul screams and bleeds from standing alone yet again while her life hollows into the dark, Nene savors the pain, and keeps standing.

* * *

_no one needs the sorrow_

_no one needs the pain_

* * *

Nene liesmodifieslies to the other Big Heroes about her grief, making them believe that she's functioning as well as she did before Kanon died. She's not, she's actually worse off than even right after Nana died, although from what she tells Hiro she plays off Kanon's death in favor of the shared pain of an older sibling's death.

Nana still hurts as much as the night Nene let her die, but at least she got one day to cry for her. Kanon's dead and she never cried for her, she stayed blank and accepted six new people into her life and turned Kanon's guest bedroom into Junichi's safe spot. She befriends Elio properly this time and opens her arms whenever Marys needs to vent or Gogo needs to argue or someone instead of her needs to cry, and she's in agony but she can manage. Pain makes people stronger, stronger Fujitas and stronger Wakahisas, she can deal with the hurt.

It's the urge to cry, the urge to sob and give into sorrow and sadness that brings her down, because she can barely emote properly as it is with her SPD and she hasn't cried since Nana's death. She wants to, but she doesn't because she can't when people need her, and she knows more than anyone else in San Fransokyo the pain of being alone when hurting; she'll never break down, not when people need her, and she's still a protector, she won't let any other soul feel as she does as long as her body can still move.

* * *

_i hate to see you_

_walking out there_

_out in the rain_

* * *

Nene skates wherever she can, even in the long road from the kinesiology labs to her loft, and even in the rain. Her favorite professor asks if Nene wants a ride and Nene half-smiles, the best she can do for him, and waves away his concerns. She likes the rain, she says, it's not easy to skate in San Fransokyo's deluge and she just loves a little challenge now and then.

But the rain is cold, and she doesn't risk her headphones, so the rain is also loud and silent in her ears. She replays her conversations with Delly and Antoine and Taro and Megumi to that silence, she plans goof time with them and Rebecca and Isabelle and Elio, her handful of friends that don't know the hidden ugly half of AnzuNene and therefore are that much more precious to keep.

She also plans time with her team, Marys and Fred and Hiro and Abigail and Honey and Wasabi and even Gogo who is shaping up to be the sort of frenemy that Beatrice used to be, always pushing Nene's buttons and challenging her to be faster stronger louder because Nene is boring bland beige and GogoBeatrice is vibrant sex on wheels.

Maybe that's why she never walks home with them, especially Gogo; the rain is too loud in its silence but so are they in the life that Nene so desperately craves, and she can't let herself believe that she'll be safe with them. Not after Beatrice, not after Nana, not after the lies and the heartbreak and her parents throwing all of her stuff to the curb when she was fifteen and drenched in her neesan's blood.

Nene twists her lips like MomoNana used to, and spies Wasabi driving the other nerds home because oh, it's a typhoon outside, Nene didn't notice. Wasabi pulls over and Gogo yells at her to get in the car; when Nene hesitates, Honey and Gogo just pull her in and squish her next to Hiro and Marys, who pull her into a conversation about rocket engines...Nene talks as much as she dares, and it's enough for now.

* * *

_so don't chastise me_

_or think i, i mean you harm_

* * *

Junichi cries in the basement, stifled scared little sobs that hurt Nene deep in her bones, and when he sees her at the staircase he straightens up and closes his lips Fujita tight and pretends that he's not in the middle of a dysphoric meltdown. He wrings his hands and he knows that his chores aren't done, that he's late for his shift, he's sorry he's sorry he'll make up for it in overtime she doesn't even have to pay him he promises he'll be good.

Nene asks if his mother ever hit him for being Junichi instead of Juncho, and Junichi cries again, absolutely mortified from the way his face flushes and his spine curves and his hands claw at his hair. Nene keeps her moonface blank, texts Ai to cover Junichi's shift (her juniors Ai Chiyo Yue Sonu Xiaolan are as protective of Junichi as Nene is, such good kids better than the Fujitas in regards to loyalty), and sits with him throughout the night in their dark little basement and listens to him spill all the madness their three year separation has left on his psyche.

Junko didn't hit Junichi explicitly for that, but she was very authoritarian and was quick to smack him around for untucked shirts and messy homework piles and whatever else that had set Junko on edge. Aunt Sera and Aunt Beatrice did what they could, but then Sera spent two years working in Thailand abroad and got pregnant with her own husband so Junichi was secondary, and Beatrice…well, Beatrice was madness, look at what she did to the rest of Junichi's aunties. But it's ok now, Sera was just around yesterday with her baby and gave Junichi the number to his half-sister Irene after all of these years, it's all good he'll be good he's sorry.

Junichi promises that he'll keep the crying to a minimum, and Nene pinches his arm; he should be thankful that he can cry so easily and bleed away that grief, don't ever think that one is lesser for being able to emote. He sniffles and Nene folds him into her arms, and tries to remember the lullabies she sang to him back when she was Anzu and the world hurt less. She can't remember, so she makes a new one, just for her sister-son, and her moonface cracks a bit when he smiles.

* * *

_of those that take you_

_leave you strung out_

_much too far_

_baby—yeah_

* * *

Nene hasn't slept in 72 hours, her final project still needs fine-tuning and she's helping Hiro with his nanobots and she wants a speed cake but she's been clean for years and doesn't want to start up again when she's got Junichi and her teammates depending on her to be sober. So she makes her special espresso shots for the other nerds in the lab and downs her own caffeine. Junichi and Ai are running the bar in her place, they're good with managing finals week customers, so Nene's affairs are set and she wills her heart to remember that, beat a little slower won't you?

Three days later she's still awake and her hands won't stop shaking, she sees dead people in the corners of the room judging her work and she's only speaking in Japanese by this point because Cantonese trips around in her mouth and English makes no goddamn sense to begin with. Delly passes out on top of her computer, Antoine folds a thousand paper cranes out of his failed paper drafts, Taro stares at a wall and Megumi dyes Nene's hair dark wine red to match the color of their bitten lips. Rebecca comes by and keeps them awake even further with menthol and spicy tea, and Nene talks on the phone with Isabelle for two confusing hours about the history of bath houses.

Another three days later and she tells Beatrice to fuck off because she doesn't know Vietnamese and it's not her fault that her skull caved in so easily, Beatrice should've drank more Ovaltine as a child so that's no skin off Nene's knees. Nana moderates a spirited discussion between Nene and Delly about the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in treating delayed onset muscle soreness, because Nene and her neesan are very well versed in the art of using generic ibuprofen to treat the wear and tear of Fujita shenanigans so stay in your lane Delly-chan. Delly laughs and Nene calls Elio to bring them all pizza since he lives closest to the better vegetarian pizza joint in the college area, and when Taro's not looking she cries and asks Kanon to forgive her.

Yet another three days later and Nene's finished with her work Hiro's work her friends' work and maybe she's about to have a heart attack (again?) but she can't sleep she can't sleep she's wried to the core and there's more dead people clawing at the windows so if she goes to sleep everyone will die and AnzuNene's a protector she can't let her loved ones die again.

Junichi comes to bring her home, and brings Fred as backup because Junichi plays dirty he knows that Nene holds Fred in high esteem and that Fred's stupid puppy dog eyes get to her, and they lie her down in Fred's stupid luxurious guest room with ASMR playing and seven blossoms tea in her stomach and Baymax monitoring her strung out heart and promises that yes she can sleep no the demons can't get in because the sprinklers are on yes she can speak Cantonese to Fred if she's tired of Japanese honorifics no she's not letting them die it's alright, go to sleep.

Nene giggles, half mad but reassured, and sleeps for an entire week before waking up and demanding a pancake party for all of her precious ones; she almost killed herself over childhood obesity data so she wants to enjoy her own indulgences now please and thank you.

* * *

_don't ever leave me_

_say you'll always be there_

* * *

Elio carries her into his apartment and Nene apologizes for bleeding on his carpet, the blood's not even hers but she's still sorry. She's sorry for bleeding on his carpet, and attempting suicide when he was out for a smoke, and becoming his friend in the first place when she knew she was so messed up from Nana and Kanon and therefore no good for him.

But can he blame her, for seeking out someone she recognized from the days when she was happy, when she didn't want to die? It might not have been the best of memories for either of them, but the hollow despair beneath her skin made even those dark nights a beacon, something to cling to.

Nene apologizes over and over, as he washes the blood from her body and dresses her in an oversized night shirt and makes sure that she didn't crack her head open from her rooftop spill. She's only banged up her wrist, she's fine and she's sorry for making him worry, and he kisses her forehead to close her lips.

He apologizes (why, why is he saying sorry when Nene's the one who fucked up?) for not being there when Nene obviously needed someone to listen, to protect her as she's protected others, and Nene clasps her hands over the broken ugly sorrow that wants to pour out of her mouth. He asks what happened, and Nene reveals the truth: a man shot his own daughter in front of Anzu Fujita the mighty Big Hero, and the girl bled out beneath AnzuNene's hands while her little sister screamed for AnzuNene to save her neesan, and Nene failed, Nene failed and she's just a failure and now a little girl will have to live through what Nene's been suffering and it's the fourth anniversary of Nana's death tonight so of course she'd let another neesan die in San Fransokyo's madness, she's worthless so worthless she just lets everyone die so she wants to die too.

Elio wants to take her to the hospital and Nene begs him to not leave her alone there, she can't have anyone else leave her there not after Kanon met her end there and Nene killed Beatrice and Nana was cremated there, she can't take it anymore please don't leave her like her family did.

Elio stays with her; he takes Nene to the psych ward, he's there for her overnight observation and calls all of Nene's friends over to give support, he brings her homework and takes back doctor's notes to her professors, he sleeps over every other night in Nene's flat to give her and Junichi outside balance, he drives her to her new therapist and listens to her complain about her new medication, he doesn't tell a soul about her secret identity, and all of the other little things. Elio doesn't ask questions, he upholds his promise; Nene wonders why, and remembers the broken something in his voice a lifetime ago, and makes a note to ask her own questions one day.

All he asks for in return is for Nene to stop apologizing and to get herself healthy again, and Nene puts all of her effort into it. She goes to her therapist three times a week and takes her medication and writes down her feelings before they push her off another roof and uses her kinesiology knowledge to get an internship that gives her extra purpose in life, and she tries to smile more often. She thinks it still looks ugly and weird, but everyone else thinks that it's lovely, so she doesn't argue.

She's not a liar anymore, not even a modifier, because Elio didn't leave and she's not one to break a promise.

* * *

_all I ever wanted_

_was for you_

_to know that I care_

* * *

Nene looks down at the birthday cake, then at everyone singing to her—it's everyone, her teammates and her juniors and her kinesiology friends and so many others from her past—and covers her mouth. But they see her smile anyway, and they sing louder, and her moonface splits with a natural grin.

The kinesiology nerds hold her upside down when she blows out the nineteen candles; Rebecca and Isabelle and Elio help Nene's juniors spell her name with illegal fireworks outside; Fred gives her piggybacks everywhere while Kaori and Marys lead karaoke battles; Gogo punches Nene hard in the shoulder and admits that she's the best frenemy in San Fransokyo; Abigail, Hiro, Honey and Wasabi face off against the nerds in embarrassing Nene the most; Junichi hugs her waist and kisses her cheek, and Nene laughs because everyone's here just for her, for boring bland beige Nene, poor little Nene Wakahisa.

Nene laughs, and Nene cries, because she is wanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One part scene, two parts sads, and three parts apricot sour: the perfect Nene Wakahisa cocktail
> 
> Can’t tell you if the last three drabbles have happened yet in TJC, and I can’t tell you if they’ll happen as written here…but Nene’s got a lot of on her plate, and the way to a happy ending with her is mired with lots and lots of sad possibilities.


	15. 60-62

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> …yikes, i have no excuse for not updating beyond my lack of interest, cycling depression, and continuous battle with anorexia (so far i'm winning, but for a long time i wasn't). lemme try and bridge the gap between the end of spring quarter and current winter break to try and bring this story back to current time
> 
> disclaimer: i don't own the copyrighted material within

Hiro looks around the gathered crowd, playing with the zipper of his hoodie, and marvels at the joys of being in the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology.

It's the end of finals week, officially time for summer vacation in just two mornings, and he's showing off the fruits of his yearlong independent study endeavor. Sure, it's 10 at night and everyone from the assembled professors and curious students to his support team and random bystanders are all in pajamas and sweat pants, but that was the fun of it. No auditorium, no stuffy business cards, just everyone in the HUB ready for Hiro Hamada to mark his genius once again.

"Ok," Hiro tests the mic, "is this working? Yes, kombanwa everyone?" He checks behind him to see Abigail, Wasabi, Fred and volunteer Keisha Kowalski standing at attention, giving him a thumbs up. He checks in front of him to see Marys leaning against Priscilla's shoulder but still smiling at him, and all of the faces of those he's gonna impress and thank for their hard work. "Alright, let's get this started…

"I'm Hiro, first year-ish student in the robotics department, blah blah blah, no one cares about that. We're here for the bots!" The crowd laughs and Hiro points at the three recycle bins staged in front of his podium. "Before we begin, I'd like to thank Abigail Callaghan for her fantastic mentoring, since she's the one who bribed me with gummy bears and beat me with textbooks when I wouldn't get out of bed. I'd also like to thank SFIT's wonderful medical track who helped me on this project even though you guys had better things to do."

And isn't that the truth? If it wasn't for Nene and her surprising amount of friends and friendly associates in the medical sector, Hiro's project would've stalled after takeoff. He still wonders if her assertion that she's a lonely blob of boring with about 3 friends outside the Big Heroes is true or not, as half of the people in the crowd are from her side: 5 from the kinesiology department; 4 from the medical biofeedback labs; 3 each from biometrics, biomechanics and neurosurgery departments; and 2 from the athletics department which doubles as a highly intensive experimentation lab with human volunteers.

Every single one of them helped during the past year as a favor to Nene; when he wasn't working on robots or physics projects, he was sitting on a bean bag chair in the general medical department hub watching Nene referee screaming medical students over how to optimize Hiro's nanobots. Absolutely terrifying, all of them, some even got into fistfights over how to make the nanobots work like Hiro wanted, and Hiro once asked robotics-biofeedback double major Elio if this was a usual thing just in this track of study or if everyone at SFIT was so pushy. They dodged a chair being thrown and Nene breaking out the airhorn, and Elio just sorta shrugged that at least they weren't setting each other on fire like the great Honey vs Marisol Morales chemistry smackdown. At least five people ended up in the ER over that mess, they don't talk about it much.

Nene's in the middle of the crowd tonight, slouching next to a yawning Elio and a perpetually chipper traditional Chinese medicine-biometrics double major Rebecca Chang, and the bags under her eyes are just as heavy as everyone else's. But she nods at Hiro shouting them out, and he puts on a show with what she helped create.

He holds up a tiny skin-toned square, "This is a smart skin application. They've always been around since the early 2000s, but tonight we're going to see a direction that I took them in." Hiro plasters them on his four subjects, noting as he covers the stump of Keisha's amputated arm, "They function as the neurotransmitter points for the nanobots, and we fixed the issue where they carry currents as nasty shocks. Thank you for your service Fred, your singed hair will not be in vain.

"Now that the applications are online," Hiro covers himself as well, then raises his arms, "let's see what we can do!"

Unlike before, with the microbots a steely gray commanding space, the nanobots are a translucent silver and flow onto their bodies like the world's thinnest layer of sugar glass. "And like glass," Hiro smiles as he shows off his encased hand and makes a fist, "they form structures according to the user's body. Like a fist," and the crowd takes notes on their smartphones as the fist changes color to green, then grows into a mighty Hulk fist. Wasabi throws an apple at Hiro and Hiro crushes it to paste with his Hulk fist, the nanobots reducing back onto his body.

"Or a pair of legs ," Abigail walks around at seven feet tall with elongated nano-legs, even doing an impromptu tap dance for the crowd.

"Or an exoskeleton," Fred becomes a spider monster straight out of comic book fever dreams, skittering around the professors with way too much enjoyment. Wasabi jumps up in the air and is caught in a sphere of nanobots, which transform into a bed for him to recline on, and then a wheel around the bed for him to chase Fred with. Abigail takes chase, and Hiro giggles into his palm because his latest and greatest creation is ridiculous after weeks of minimal sleep. At least the professors and other students were having fun too, Nene and Marys being good sports when Fred kidnaps them and Gogo seating herself on Abigail's shoulders.

"Or whatever else you want them to be." And this is the kicker, because as much fun as the other nanobot uses are, they aren't the main purpose. Keisha raises her arm stump, and everyone turns back to the stage as a nanobot prosthesis forms. The nanobots change color to match Keisha's ebony skin, and even up close Hiro can see little difference between flesh and manipulated carbon. "Everyone's video ready?" Hiro picks up a glass of ice water, waits for everyone to get silent, then dumps the water on Keisha's prosthetic arm.

Her reaction validates all of the suffering that this project has caused Hiro's feeble teenage body: she shrieks, recoiling as goosebumps raise on her flesh arm and her nanobot arm curls up with natural reflex. Keisha freezes as the crowd gasps, then grins megawatt, "I couldn't tell you the difference between this arm and my real one. That's freaking cold!"

From the surge of students crowding around the nanobots, brainstorming their own ideas for the next phases that Hiro will focus on in the upcoming year, Hiro makes eye contact with Honey. Honey gives him a double thumbs up, suppressing her squeal because she stands right next to Prof. Ishioka, who gives out the final grades for independent study. Honey mouths, "She's giving you an A!" and Hiro wants to faint with relief.

That's it then, Hiro's free to celebrate the summer with a clear conscience before summer quarter starts up. His birthday is soon, along with all of his friends', and he can relax before Baymax finally snaps and locks Hiro in a lockdown suite demanding 12 hours of sleep from his tiny human. Aunt Cass can make mega hot wings, the whole crew can go out for rollerskating and boba tea, and Hiro can finally, finally, enjoy the summer.

As the crowd dissipates from the HUB, and Baymax helps Hiro make sure that not a single nanobot is stolen from the premises, a calling card ends up in Hiro's hoodie. He doesn't notice until he's at home, cuddling with Mochi and blushing under Aunt Cass's enthusiasm for her sonephew. He sticks his hands in his pockets and finds the card; it's mostly blank, with only "I look forward to working with you! :)" from someone named "n0h".

"Hmm, have you got a secret science admirer?" Cass doesn't seem to be worried much, and Hiro's too tired to figure out who is n0h and whether or not this will upset Marys. All he can think of is sleep, and going to the arcade later this week with Junichi, Sonu and Claudio, and how soft Mochi is, and whether or not Tadashi would be proud of him.

Had he known what was coming, Hiro would've gone to the police.

* * *

But Hiro doesn't know what is coming, and in his defense he isn't given a reason to worry until the weather's freezing cold again.

The summer is the kind of summer that good memories are made from. Abigail flies them all down to the coast again, this time to Big Sur where they all get injured rock climbing and body surfing and, in Fred's case, terribly sunburned. It's beautiful there, where they celebrate two birthdays (Gogo and Sana) a weekend early so that the group can have first dibs on birthday beatings. Hiro even gets the idea of a mermaid-based battle bot, after watching Marys swim in the aqua surf and falling in love all over again.

A few weeks in San Fransokyo proper, with huge Korean neighborhood birthday feasts that leave Hiro feeling full for once and ease the ache in his growing bones. Honey's birthday is next, the same again with a huge Mexican family that all try to teach Hiro Spanish and fail miserably

Honey just laughs, since Tadashi was much of the same way

and Hiro hasn't enjoyed a 5-round piñata battle in years, it's loud and wonderful. Days blaze by in the arcade, since the boys love the Sugar Rush racing game and the girls are worthy opponents, and Nene even helps host a huge charity game tournament. What's a proper sugar rush without her crazy awesome cupcakes and cream puffs and milkshakes anyway, and with Hiro egging on the crowd they raise $5000 for the youth detention center. Chiyo, Ai and Yue all thank him privately, since that money is sorely needed from their first-person prospective, and Hiro loves that having fun can equal giving back.

They head down further south back to Los Angosaka for Abigail's birthday, since her family consists of everyone that she can squeeze into an airplane. They convince Wasabi's datemate Alex to tag along, since any heart squeeze of Wasabi's is a friend of the nerd herd, and Alex proves invaluable when an EMP strikes and no one's phones work for three days. Alex and Claudio are LA kids, so they claim, and even when Hiro leads a no-photos-allowed, super-secret Big Hero mission to take down the villain wannabe who knocked out the power, they find all the best food trucks.

Back to San Fransokyo, and for Wasabi's own birthday along with Sonu's and Xiaolan's, and Hiro gains weight. He's a bit defensive of it, since it all seems to be going to his cheeks instead of his pitiful chicken legs, but Marys is…convincing, when she asserts that he's still the hottest fourteen-going-on-fifteen year old roboticist in the city. Wasabi's mama is determined to help Hiro with his body image, along with all of the fussy relatives of Nene's brat horde, and Hiro can't say no to free food.

Most of all, Aunt Cass won't stop smiling, which makes Hiro smile, and that's exercise enough for his face.

Summer bleeds into summer quarter, which is more of the same plus more school. There are Big Hero missions and there are shenanigans and Hiro can't remember the last time he was this happy. Genuine happiness, so sorely missed when he entered high school and lost his shiny view of the world, which seems almost out of place with how easy it is.

But it's here and it's real and Hiro talks to Tadashi's shrine every day about this happiness. He misses Tadashi still, he always will, but it's hurting less every time he and the gang go to Tommy Kazan's and Shizu's and Nene's and whatever Taiwanese hole-in-the-wall that Xiaolan drags them to. Fred's own birthday is a huge sleepover event with everyone at his house for a weekend, binging on bad movies and comic discussions and more junk food than even Hiro is aware of. He lies sprawled on the ground, watching the tallest half of the group battle the shortest half in a vicious pillow fighting war, and wishes every day is like this.

When summer quarter ends

with all As, Hiro is vain and proud of himself for having a better cumulative GPA than Tadashi; now it's time to overtake Wasabi's

and the second summer vacation before fall quarter starts, Hiro's dream comes true. Chiyo, Ai and Yue's birthdays are clustered together and take place at the roller rink, where for the best present ever the Big Heroes negotiate their early release from juvie. Chiyo cries, she's so happy, which makes Hiro cry and before the entire group dissolves into a mushy feels pile Nene kicks them all onto the rink. More bruised knees for Baymax to fuss over, especially when Kaori and other surviving Fujitas show up to kick the party into full throttle, and Hiro goes through with getting semi-permanent red streaks in his hair.

Hiro's own birthday, at the edge of the summer season proper, has Aunt Cass in full form. Birthday streamers, party games (even the fun ones, like Cards Against Morality), cake for days and hot sauce for weeks. His presents are either very useful, like Wasabi's gift of a 100 piece wrench set, or very fun, like Gogo's gift of an electromagnetic suspension bike, or very embarrassing, like Sonu's gift of assorted hair clips and sticky glitter lip gloss.

He uses them all, letting Honey and Nene apply the makeup so they can figure out which smol Japanese boy is the cutest in guyliner: Hiro, Junichi or Claudio. Claudio wins by the smallest of margins, since he has the poutiest lips and is the most confident in glitter eyeshadow. Xiaolan points out that only Junichi is full-blooded Japanese so he should win by default, but Fred argues that since they all have Japanese surnames it counts. It doesn't matter anyway, Marys whispers once she gets Hiro alone, since Hiro definitely won and his prize/present from her is much more fun than getting a pie in the face anyway.

It's appropriate to know how to wear eyeliner anyway, after all, since once September rolls around with Nene's own birthday, they go see My Nuclear Romance in the flesh. It's the biggest group yet, since Nene knows people and gives out tickets to sold-out events like they're secondhand candy, so Hiro ends up squished next to Chae-won Kjellberg and Gigi Nguyen in the van ride over. The girls all dress up in wild shades of scene, Gogo and Abigail and Honey all in fishnets because they're adults and can do as they please, and the brat horde in matching miniskirts because they're not adults but can still do as they please.

Marys has four pigtails dipped in red and rainbow converse, and Baymax asks if Hiro needs a defibrillator for his faltering heartbeat. But Hiro's fine, Hiro's more than fine as he screams along with the others pressed against the security railings, and soon it'll be her sweet sixteenth, how fun will that be?

As much fun as Gogo unceremoniously shoving newly thirteen Chae-won at Junichi, because Gogo apparently wants to make up for being slow in her own love life; Hiro approves, since Chae-won is stunningly pretty like her older sister was, and Junichi looks good with a Crayola red blush. Hiro with Marys, Gogo with Abigail, Wasabi with Alex, Chae-won with Junichi, Sonu and Xiaolan both with a heartbreaker Swedish tourist—it's worse than Valentine's Day, and even Nene is pressed rather close to her friend Elio by the end.

Hiro's ears ring now and then for the rest of that vacation, where everything is loud and fast and burns away the lingering hurts in his stomach. Before the year ends they still have Marys, Priscilla, Junichi and Claudio's birthdays to attend to, along with Thanksgiving, Christmas, general holiday cheer…summer ends but Hiro is still riding high.

When fall quarter comes with its own stress, Hiro is well prepared. He even checks his spam mailbox in his SFIT email, and

n0h's been messaging him since the end of spring quarter, always with the same message.

Hiro ignores it, up until the day that Abigail pulls him out of an acoustics elective class with a face too pale and says with a voice too tight, "Claudio and Sana are in the hospital."

* * *

Sana never heard it coming. She's deaf, and the car sped behind her too quickly for her to feel or see; Claudio saw it happen too late, and when he caught her body when it fell from the car's hood, it just so happened that the car's best friend ran into him too.

The police blame the drag racers that terrorize the streets around San Fransoyko State, Fred agrees that there's a serious problem with terrible drivers with worse morals, and the doctors say that there's a chance that neither of them will wake up again.

Hiro sits in the waiting room, paralyzed with hurt because this can't be happening, he can't lose anyone else, not when he just made these friends and they still had a birthday to celebrate, he just can't do it—

he offers his nanobots to the doctors, hoping that they can help in any way, and the head surgeon wonders if they can use the nanobots to construct Claudio's missing arm, Sana's crushed skull. Hiro breathes a small sigh of hope, because maybe no one has to die this time.

When he goes home that night and checks his emails, there's a new message: "I look forward to working with you! Your work will take us to many exciting places! :) :D :D"

Hiro feels a chill roll down his back, like Tadashi's hands on his shoulders, and decides to talk to Abigail about this in the morning.

* * *

had he known what was coming, he would've tracked n0h down that second

he would've, he should've, he could've, all unactions that will haunt him in the years to come

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol that is the worst chapter i've ever written
> 
> if you're lost on who is in this chapter, go touch up on the last series of drabbles; it's been a while, i don't blame you


End file.
